The Creation of Global Imaginaries: The Antarctic Ozone Hole and the Isoline Tradition in the Atmospheric Sciences

• Main Author: Grevsmühl, Sebastian
• Other Authors: Groupe de Recherche sur l'Histoire de l'Environnement/Equipe CRH (GRHEN-CRH), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Birgit Schneider, Thomas Nocke
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: History and philosophy of science; History and geography; Scientific images; Visual cultures; Ozone depletion; Environmental History; Ozone hole; [SHS.HISPHILSO]Humanities and Social Sciences/History; Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences; [SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History; [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519392; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519392/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01519392/file/Grevsmuhl_global_imaginaries.pdf

International audience This historical essay retraces from the perspective of visual and material culture how ways of analyzing and visualizing atmospheric data dramatically affect how scientific phenomena are perceived. The chapter retraces the history of the isoline tradition in the atmospheric sciences. It then explains in detail how NASA scientists reframed the local phenomenon of ozone depletion as a global environmental risk through their use of contour maps, displaying large quantities of global satellite data in synoptic form, coupled with the introduction of a new powerful metaphor: the “ozone hole.”