Stratospheric ozone depletion
Solar ultraviolet radiation creates an ozone layer in the atmosphere which in turn completely absorbs the most energetic fraction of this radiation. This process both warms the air, creating the stratosphere between 15 and 50 km altitude, and protects the biological activities at the Earth's su...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2006
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 |
id |
crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 2024-10-13T14:01:46+00:00 Stratospheric ozone depletion Rowland, F. Sherwood 2006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 361, issue 1469, page 769-790 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 journal-article 2006 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 2024-09-23T04:22:22Z Solar ultraviolet radiation creates an ozone layer in the atmosphere which in turn completely absorbs the most energetic fraction of this radiation. This process both warms the air, creating the stratosphere between 15 and 50 km altitude, and protects the biological activities at the Earth's surface from this damaging radiation. In the last half-century, the chemical mechanisms operating within the ozone layer have been shown to include very efficient catalytic chain reactions involving the chemical species HO, HO 2 , NO, NO 2 , Cl and ClO. The NO X and ClO X chains involve the emission at Earth's surface of stable molecules in very low concentration (N 2 O, CCl 2 F 2 , CCl 3 F, etc.) which wander in the atmosphere for as long as a century before absorbing ultraviolet radiation and decomposing to create NO and Cl in the middle of the stratospheric ozone layer. The growing emissions of synthetic chlorofluorocarbon molecules cause a significant diminution in the ozone content of the stratosphere, with the result that more solar ultraviolet-B radiation (290–320 nm wavelength) reaches the surface. This ozone loss occurs in the temperate zone latitudes in all seasons, and especially drastically since the early 1980s in the south polar springtime—the ‘Antarctic ozone hole’. The chemical reactions causing this ozone depletion are primarily based on atomic Cl and ClO, the product of its reaction with ozone. The further manufacture of chlorofluorocarbons has been banned by the 1992 revisions of the 1987 Montreal Protocol of the United Nations. Atmospheric measurements have confirmed that the Protocol has been very successful in reducing further emissions of these molecules. Recovery of the stratosphere to the ozone conditions of the 1950s will occur slowly over the rest of the twenty-first century because of the long lifetime of the precursor molecules. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic The Royal Society Antarctic The Antarctic Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361 1469 769 790 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Solar ultraviolet radiation creates an ozone layer in the atmosphere which in turn completely absorbs the most energetic fraction of this radiation. This process both warms the air, creating the stratosphere between 15 and 50 km altitude, and protects the biological activities at the Earth's surface from this damaging radiation. In the last half-century, the chemical mechanisms operating within the ozone layer have been shown to include very efficient catalytic chain reactions involving the chemical species HO, HO 2 , NO, NO 2 , Cl and ClO. The NO X and ClO X chains involve the emission at Earth's surface of stable molecules in very low concentration (N 2 O, CCl 2 F 2 , CCl 3 F, etc.) which wander in the atmosphere for as long as a century before absorbing ultraviolet radiation and decomposing to create NO and Cl in the middle of the stratospheric ozone layer. The growing emissions of synthetic chlorofluorocarbon molecules cause a significant diminution in the ozone content of the stratosphere, with the result that more solar ultraviolet-B radiation (290–320 nm wavelength) reaches the surface. This ozone loss occurs in the temperate zone latitudes in all seasons, and especially drastically since the early 1980s in the south polar springtime—the ‘Antarctic ozone hole’. The chemical reactions causing this ozone depletion are primarily based on atomic Cl and ClO, the product of its reaction with ozone. The further manufacture of chlorofluorocarbons has been banned by the 1992 revisions of the 1987 Montreal Protocol of the United Nations. Atmospheric measurements have confirmed that the Protocol has been very successful in reducing further emissions of these molecules. Recovery of the stratosphere to the ozone conditions of the 1950s will occur slowly over the rest of the twenty-first century because of the long lifetime of the precursor molecules. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rowland, F. Sherwood |
spellingShingle |
Rowland, F. Sherwood Stratospheric ozone depletion |
author_facet |
Rowland, F. Sherwood |
author_sort |
Rowland, F. Sherwood |
title |
Stratospheric ozone depletion |
title_short |
Stratospheric ozone depletion |
title_full |
Stratospheric ozone depletion |
title_fullStr |
Stratospheric ozone depletion |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stratospheric ozone depletion |
title_sort |
stratospheric ozone depletion |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 361, issue 1469, page 769-790 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1783 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
361 |
container_issue |
1469 |
container_start_page |
769 |
op_container_end_page |
790 |
_version_ |
1812812711963131904 |