Zhong et al. [1996] (hereafter ZTH) calculated the radiative forcing due to stratospheric ozone loss. The sign and size of the ozone forcing depend on the balance between three different terms. At visible and ultra-violet wavelengths, the ozone depletion causes a positive forcing, as more radiation reaches the troposphere. In the thermal infrared, the decreased emission by stratospheric ozone causes a negative forcing. The stratospheric cooling resulting from the ozone loss leads to a further reduction in the thermal infrared emission from the stratosphere to the troposphere; for ozone loss concentrated in the lower stratosphere, inclusion of this cooling term makes the net forcing negative. As pointed out by ZTH, the size of the ozone radiative forcing depends heavily on the assumed vertical profile of temperature change; temperature changes near the tropopause have the largest effect. In a novel departure from recent studies, ZTH used observed, rather than model-calculated, temperature changes to deduce the radiative forcing and found