We have measured the correlation of rates in IceCube with long and short term variations in the South Pole atmosphere. The yearly temperature variation in the middle stratosphere (30-60 hPa) is highly correlated with the high energy muon rate observed deep in the ice, and causes a +/-10% seasonal modulation in the event rate. The counting rates of the surface detectors, which are due to secondary particles of relatively low energy (muons, electrons and photons), have a negative correlation with temperatures in the lower layers of the stratosphere (40-80 hPa), and are modulated at a level of +/-5%. The region of the atmosphere between pressure levels 20-120 hPa, where the first cosmic ray interactions occur and the produced pions/kaons interact or decay to muons, is the Antarctic ozone layer. The anticorrelation between surface and deep ice trigger rates reflects the properties of pion/kaon decay and interaction as the density of the stratospheric ozone layer changes. Therefore, IceCube closely probes the ozone hole dynamics, and the temporal behavior of the stratospheric temperatures.

4 pages, Proceedings of the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland, July 2009