Ozone not healing
October 21st, 2011 - 12:50 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Oct 21 (IANS) Scientists worldwide are looking for evidence that the ozone layer is beginning to heal, but this year’s data from Antarctica does not hint at a turnaround.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA use balloon-borne instruments, ground instruments and satellites to monitor the annual South Pole ozone hole, global levels of ozone and the manmade chemicals that contribute to ozone depletion.
The ozone layer helps protect the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, but environmental factors punch a hole through it every year, for several weeks.
The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every spring, reached its annual peak on Sep 12, stretching 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record.
“The upper part of the atmosphere over the South Pole was colder than average this season and that cold air is one of the key ingredients for ozone destruction,” said James Butler, director of NOAA’s Global Monitoring Division in Boulder, Colorado, according to a NOAA statement.
Other key ingredients are ozone-depleting chemicals that remain in the atmosphere and ice crystals on which ozone-depleting chemical reactions take place.
Levels of most ozone-depleting chemicals are slowly declining due to international action, but many have long lifetimes, remaining in the atmosphere for decades.
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- Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss found - Oct 05, 2011
- Arctic ozone layer depleted by 40 percent: Experts - Apr 06, 2011
- 'Laughing gas' leaves ozone layer in splits - Aug 28, 2009
- Ozone layer 'no longer disappearing, will return to full strength by 2048' - Sep 21, 2010
- Boffins discover key compound of ozone depletion - Jul 23, 2010
- Ozone hole just got bigger this year - Oct 08, 2008
- Ban calls for cooperation to address environmental challenges - Sep 16, 2010
- Without global pact, ultraviolet radiation would have singed us by 2065 - Mar 20, 2009
- Ozone hole in 2008 is larger than last year - Oct 08, 2008
- NASA and Brazil sign Earth science agreements - Oct 28, 2011
- Ozone hole 'affecting climate change in Southern Hemisphere' - Apr 22, 2011
- US, India to convene Joint Task Force on reducing climate damaging HFCs - Feb 24, 2011
- Scientists detect ozone-depleting species in atmosphere - Feb 26, 2009
- 'India should do more research in polar regions' - Feb 03, 2011
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