Longitude-Resolved Spatial Organization of Quasi-Biennial-Range Stratospheric Ozone Variability from AIRS Observations

Stratospheric ozone exhibits quasi-biennial-range variability, whose spatial organization can differ among pressure levels and longitudes. We analyzed Aqua Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Version 7 monthly ozone observations from September 2002 to December 2025 at 50, 10, and 3 hPa. A Morlet wavelet analysis of standardized anomalies characterized the 20–36-month variability, with AR(1) Monte Carlo significance tests and complementary multiple-testing and uncertainty assessments. The tropical 10 hPa band showed relatively enhanced normalized power and widespread longitudinal support: 326 of 359 eligible longitudes remained significant after a within-level Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment of band-level tests. In the global 10 hPa grid-cell analysis, 6792 of 62,191 eligible cells passed the corresponding global Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment. Conditional block-bootstrap comparisons indicated differences in some predefined longitude-sector contrasts, whereas the confidence intervals for the 10-minus-50 hPa longitude-power coefficient-of-variation difference included zero. Regressions using NOAA CPC and KIT/FU Berlin QBO wind records indicated longitude-sector heterogeneity in the 10 hPa ozone–QBO regression associations using the 50 hPa wind index. The ERA5 temperature and low-wavenumber geopotential height patterns provided meteorological context, although the assessed ozone–ERA5 spatial alignments did not pass the adopted spatial-null tests. These findings offer a pressure-dependent, longitude-resolved description of quasi-biennial-range ozone variability and selected QBO-associated statistical relationships, without establishing a unique dynamical or chemical attribution.