Temporal and Spatial Variability and Trend Investigation of Total Ozone Column over Iraq Employing Remote Sensing Data: 1979-2012

The objective of this paper is to analyze the temporal and spatial variability of the total ozone column (TOC) distributions and trends over Iraq, during the last 30 years (1979–2012) using remote sensing-derived TOC data. Due to shortage of ground-based TOC measurements. TOC data derived from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for the period 1979–2004 and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for the period 2005–2012 with spatial resolution (1^o×1^o) were used in present study. The spatial, long-term, monthly variations of TOC over Iraq were analysed. For the spatial variability, the latitudinal variability has a large range between (45 to 55) DU in winter and spring whereas during summer and autumn months ranged between (6 to 10) DU. Also represents an annual cycle with maximum in March and minimum in October. In contrast, the longitudinal variability is not significant. The long-term variability represented a notable decline for the period 1979–2012. The ozone negative trend was observed significantly during 1979–2004, for all months with trend ranged between (− 0.3 to 2) DU/year whereas the ozone positive trend was appear clearly during 2005–2007, for all months (0.1 to 2.3) DU/year ,except February and September which presented negative trends. The results can provide comprehensive descriptions of the TOC variations in Iraq and benefit climate change research in this region.