Introduction

Ozone: a gas composed of three atoms of oxygen and is a bluish gas that is harmful to
breathe. While ground level ozone is a pollutant, stratospheric ozone is beneficial.
Nearly 90% of the Earth's ozone is in the stratosphere and is referred to as the ozone
layer. The ozone layer lies approximately 15-40 kilometers (10-25 miles) above the
Earth's surface, in the stratosphere. The ozone layer prevents most UVB from reaching
the ground. Ozone absorbs a band of ultraviolet radiation called UVB that is particularly
harmful to living organisms. Depletion of this layer by ODS will lead to higher UVB
levels, which in turn will cause increased skin cancers and cataracts and potential
damage to some marine organisms, plants, and plastics.

Ozone Depletion: Chemical destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer beyond natural
reactions. Stratospheric ozone is constantly being created and destroyed through
natural cycles. Various ozone-depleting substances (ODS), however, accelerate the
destruction processes, resulting in lower than normal ozone levels.

In 1974, F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina pointed out that CFCs are
tranported into the stratoshpher, where they photodissociate to release chlorine atoms.
The chlorine atoms destroy ozone according to another catalytic cycle:

Cl + O3 --- ClO + O2

ClO + O --- Cl + O2

net reaction: O3 + O --- 2O2

In this cycle , atomic chlorine (Cl) and chlorine monoxide radicals (ClO) are catalysts,
since they promote the overall reaction, but are not consumed.

Sources: Energy Demand and Energy Engineering Course Pack

http://www.al.noaa.gov/wwwhd/pubdocs/Assessment98/faq5.html

The springtime Antarctic ozone hole is a new phenomenon that appeared in the early
1980s. The observed average amount of ozone during September, October, and
November over the British Antarctic Survey station at Halley, Antarctica, first revealed
notable decreases in the early 1980s, compared with the preceding data obtained
starting in 1957. The ozone hole is formed each year when there is a sharp decline
(currently up to 60%) in the total ozone over most of Antarctica for a period of about
three months (September-November) during spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Late-
summer (January-March) ozone amounts show no such sharp decline in the 1980s and
1990s. Observations from three other stations in Antarctica and from satellite-based
instruments reveal similar decreases in springtime amounts of ozone overhead.

Balloon borne ozone instruments show dramatic changes in the way ozone is
distributed with altitude. As the figure below from the Syowa site shows, almost all of the
ozone is now depleted at some altitudes as the ozone hole forms each springtime,
compared to the normal ozone profile that existed before 1980. As explained in an
earlier question, the ozone hole has been shown to result from destruction of
stratospheric ozone by gases containing chlorine and bromine, whose sources are
mainly human-produced halocarbon gases.

Before the stratosphere was affected by human-produced chlorine and bromine, the
naturally occurring springtime ozone levels over Antarctica were about 30-40% lower
than springtime ozone levels over the Arctic. This natural difference between Antarctic
and Arctic conditions was first observed in the late 1950s by Dobson. It stems from the
exceptionally cold temperatures and different winter wind patterns within the Antarctic
stratosphere as compared with the Arctic. This is not at all the same phenomenon as
the marked downward trend in ozone over Antarctica in recent years.

Changes in stratospheric meteorology cannot explain the ozone hole. Measurements

show that wintertime Antarctic stratospheric temperatures of past decades had not
changed prior to the development of the ozone hole each September.

Ground, aircraft, and satellite measurements have provided, in contrast, clear evidence
of the importance of the chemistry of chlorine and bromine originating from human-
made compounds in depleting Antarctic ozone in recent years.
Antarctic Ozone Levels Fall, 1995

This graphic shows ozone levels over the Antarctic during Fall, 1995 in dobson units
(DU). During the deepest ozone loss, the center of the hole (the red area) can drop
below 100 DU. Since normal values are usually around 300, the worst holes can reach
over 70% depletion. Although it was not visible on September 1, 1995, the Antarctic
ozone hole was the red and purple area that appeared over Antarctica September 15.
The ozone hole is defined as the area having less than 220 dobson units (DU) of ozone
in the overhead column (i.e., between the ground and space).

The ozone hole is a well-defined, large-scale destruction of the ozone layer over
Antarctica that occurs each Antarctic spring. The word "hole" is a misnomer; the hole is
really a significant thinning, or reduction in ozone concentrations, which results in the
destruction of up to 70% of the ozone normally found over Antarctica. Unlike global
ozone depletion, the ozone hole occurs only over Antarctica.

Source: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/hole/holehome.html

Impacts

Ultraviolet radiation is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths

shorter than visible light. The sun produces UV, which is commonly split into three
bands: UVA, UVB, and UVC. UVA is not absorbed by ozone. UVB is mostly absorbed
by ozone, although some reaches the Earth. UVC is completely absorbed by ozone and
normal oxygen. UVC: a band of ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths shorter than 280
nanometers

UVB: a band of ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths from 280-320 nanometers

produced by the Sun UVB is a kind of ultraviolet light from the sun (and sun lamps) that
has several harmful effects.particularly effective at damaging DNA. It is a cause of
melanoma and other types of skin cancer. It has also been linked to damage to some
materials, crops, and marine organisms. The ozone layer protects the Earth against
most UVB coming from the sun. It is always important to protect oneself against UVB,
even in the absence of ozone depletion, by wearing hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
However, these precautions will become more important as ozone depletion worsens.

UVC is extremely dangerous, but it is completely absorbed by ozone and normal

oxygen (O2).

impacts

• Ozone layer absorbs most of the harmful UV-B radiation; more UV-B means:

– more melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers

– more eye cataracts

– weakened immune systems

– reduced plant yields

– damage to ocean eco-ecosystems

– more damage to plastics