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NOAA and NASA Report Ozone Hole Over Antarctic Getting A Little Smaller And Improving

 


Ozone is a form of oxygen that shows up in our atmosphere. Instead of two atoms bound together, which is the form we breath, this is three atoms that bind under certain circumstances. The contradiction is that it is toxic for us to inhale, but is vital to protecting life on Earth.





The toxic form of ozone is a form of pollution that occurs more commonly in the summer when pollution interacts with high angle sunlight and high temperatures. This is also one component of smog. This is why we have ‘Ozone Action Days’ sometimes during a heat wave.

The essential form of ozone is much higher in the sky in the stratosphere. This is above the weather portion of our sky and above the normal flight path of commercial planes between 10 and about 30 miles above the ground. 

This is a more natural location for that molecule, where it serves to block harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Without it, most life on our planet could not exist.  So basically, we need this.




The hole in the ozone layer is actually a naturally occurring annual cycle, especially over the Antarctic where extremes of sun and darkness are met with a closed circulation aided by oceans surrounding the ‘bottom of the globe’.

In 1987, The Montreal Protocol was an international agreement banning the production of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These are refrigerants that were used air conditioners, but also shown to traverse the globe and break down the ‘good’ ozone facilitation the expanding Ozone Hole. It was phased out in the US in 1995, however CFCs can last in the atmosphere between 44 and 140 years.

 

Recovering Ozone Layer?

Monitoring the Ozone Hole fluctuation has been a major environmental priority, and it appears this past year brings some good news, shrinking about 10% in 2022.

 

From NOAA:

The hole over Antarctica had an average area of 8.91 million square miles (23.1 million square kilometers). That measurement is slightly smaller than the extent of 8.99 million square miles (23.3 million square kilometers) reached last year, and well below the average seen in 2006 when the hole size peaked.




Here, a NOAA ozonesonde — an instrument used to help scientists monitor the Antarctic ozone hole — ascends over the South Pole in this time-lapse photo taken October 21, 2020. (Courtesy of Yuya Makino/IceCube)

Comments

  1. Environmental Chemistry StudentsOctober 26, 2022 at 11:07 AM

    Informative. It is important that we the inhabitants of this small blue planet make every effort to care for our home. It really isn't just about you and I, but we should spare a thought for our children and their children. When we this generation choses to wreck our planet where will we they live?

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