Summary
A summary of stratospheric measurements above Davis, Antarctica (68.6°S, 78.0°E) for the winter and spring of 2005 is presented. A rapid warming was observed in the lower stratosphere during the third week of August. This was associated with the development of planetary wave activity and warming of the extratropical region between South Africa and Australia. The warming resulted in temperatures being above the frost point for Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs), and produced a change in the character of aerosols above Davis. Despite the warming and its likely influence on PSC volume, total ozone column values above Davis during September were near the minimum values observed by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for the site. This was likely due to the fact that the warming had taken place after a significant amount of chemical processing of the stratosphere by PSCs had already occurred, and that Davis was still located under the polar vortex.