The eruption of Mount Pinatubo introduce large amounts of sulfur-containing particles into the stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone measured by ozonesondes and satellites is significantly lower following the June 1991 eruption and throughout 1992 and 1993. To clarify the mechanisms leading to effects on stratospheric ozone, time-dependent stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment II (SAGE II) and cryogenic limb array elaton spectrometer (CLAES) aerosol optical extinction data and SAGE II surface area density are used as parameters in a two-dimensional (2-D) zonally averaged chemical radiative transport model. The model was integrated with time from before the eruption through December 1993. The modeled impact on global ozone results from increased rates of heterogeneous reactions on sulfate aerosols and from the increased radiative heating and scattering caused by these aerosols. The model's dynamical response to changes in forcing (from changes in radiatively active trace gas concentrations and from aerosol heating) is treated in one of three ways: (1) the stratospheric temperature is perturbed, with fixed seasonal circulation, (2) the circulation is perturbed, with fixed seasonal temperature, or (3) both circulation and temperature are unperturbed, when investigating only the impact of Mount Pinatubo increased aerosol surface area density (SAD) and aerosol scattering of actinic solar radiation.

When the aerosol heating is allowed to modify the temperature distribution, the maximum change calculated in equatorial column ozone is -1.6%. The calculated equatorial temperature change and peak local ozone change in October 1991 are +6 K and -4%, respectively. When aerosol heating perturbs the circulation in the model, the maximum change in equatorial column ozone is -6%. Increased heterogeneous processing on sulfate aerosols is calculated to have changed equatorial column ozone in late 1991 by -1.5%. Global column ozone in the model in 1992 and 1993 changed by -2.8% and -2.4%, respectively. The relationship of ozone-controlling processes in the lower stratosphere is altered as well; HOx becomes the most important catalytic cycle, followed by ClOx and NOx. This is driven by significant changes in trace gas concentrations. In October 1991, lower stratospheric, equatorial NOx decreased by 40%, ClOx increased by 60%, and HOx increased by 25%. When the effect of heterogeneous chemical processing on sulfate aerosols is combined with aerosol heating, modifying either circulation or temperature, dramatically different ozone fingerprints with time and latitude are predicted.

Model-derived changes in the equatorial region in column ozone best represented the observed data when perturbed circulation was combined with heterogeneous chemical effects. However, at high latitudes, the increased ozone production from the strengthening of the mean circulation tends to cancel the heterogeneous reduction of ozone. This is not in good agreement with observed data, especially in 1992 and 1993. When the circulation is held fixed and the temperature allowed to change, and heterogeneous chemical effects are included, the equatorial ozone decrease predicted was too small for 1991. However, the mid- to high-latitude decrease in 1992 and 1993 is in better agreement with observed data. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994