simple drawing of an airplane simple drawing of an ozone layer

The 'hole' is actually an area of the stratosphere with extremely low concentrations of ozone that reoccurs every year at the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere spring (August to October).Īt the North Pole, a degraded ozone layer is responsible for the Arctic's rapid rate of warming, according to a 2020 study published in Nature Climate Change. Molina and Rowland’s study was validated in 1985, when a team of English scientists found a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica that was later linked to CFCs.

Environmental Protection Agency, eradicating ozone much more quickly than it can be replaced. One atom of chlorine can destroy more than 100,000 ozone molecules, according to the U.S. This groundbreaking research-for which they were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry-concluded that the atmosphere had a “finite capacity for absorbing chlorine” atoms in the stratosphere. As they reach the stratosphere, the sun's UV rays break CFCs down into substances such as chlorine. At the time, CFCs were commonly used in aerosol sprays and as coolants in many refrigerators. In 1974, Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland, two chemists at the University of California, Irvine, published an article in the journal Nature detailing threats to the ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. Groundbreaking research in the 1970s and 1980s revealed signs of trouble. Its concentration in the atmosphere naturally fluctuates depending on seasons and latitudes, but it was generally stable when global measurements began in 1957.

Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive gas whose molecules are comprised of three oxygen atoms.

Atmospheric ozone is sometimes labeled as the 'good' ozone, because of its protective role, and shouldn't be confused with tropospheric, or ground-level, 'bad' ozone, a key component of air pollution that is linked with respiratory disease. Exposure to UVB radiation is linked with increased risk of skin cancer and cataracts, as well as damage to plants and marine ecosystems. Over the past 30 years, humans have successfully phased out many of the chemicals that harm the ozone layer, the atmospheric shield that sits in the stratosphere about nine to 18 miles (15 to 30 kilometers) above Earth's surface.Ītmospheric ozone absorbs ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, particularly harmful UVB-type rays. Earth's ozone layer, an early symbol of global environmental degradation, is improving and on track to recover by the middle of the 21st century.

Simple drawing of an airplane simple drawing of an ozone layer