Ozone occurs about 18 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Ozone is both caused by and provides protection from damaging ultraviolet energy emitted by the sun. The development of an atmospheric “ozone layer” allowed life to move out of the oceans and onto land.
The amount of ozone in the atmosphere is routinely measured from satellites. Typically, the Antarctic ozone hole has its largest area in early September and lowest values in late September to early October. This year it was measured to be one of the largest and deepest in recent years, covering just over 9 million square miles.
The ozone hole occurs high over the continent of Antarctica. It is the appearance of very low values of ozone in the stratosphere. The winter atmosphere above Antarctica is very cold. The cold temperatures result in a temperature gradient between the South Pole and the Southern Hemisphere middle latitudes, which results in strong westerly stratospheric winds that encircle the South Pole region.
These extremely cold temperatures inside the strong winds help to form unique types of clouds called Polar Stratospheric Clouds, or PSCs. They begin to form during June, which is wintertime at the South Pole. Chemicals on the surface of the particles composing PSCs result in chemical reactions that remove the chlorine from the atmospheric compounds. When the sun returns to the Antarctic stratosphere in the spring (our fall), sunlight splits the chlorine molecules into highly reactive chlorine atoms that rapidly deplete ozone. The depletion is so rapid that it has been termed a “hole in the ozone layer.”
The Montreal Protocol bans emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals, and that is having a good impact. Observations show the area of the ozone hole is decreasing.
