what's going on with the OZONE layer

It looks like we are loosing ozone in the North too , following the ozone hole at the south pole.

Here is the wikipedia page with some explanations : en.wikipedia.org...

To my surprise, the ozone layer in the north hemisphere did not get any better as I was told . And this is how this looks right now, begining of January:


Source:
exp-studies.tor.ec.gc.ca...

At the moment, the drop is 24 % above Eastern Europe (Romania) and 15 % above central Europe. I am not sure what the implications are, but this is something to follow I guess.

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Ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere is normal at this time of year because the lack of sunlight which replenishes it.

reply to post by Phage


Hm.. I am not sure this is normal, especially for Eastern Europe. We are at 45 N latitude .. as I understood this this only started to happen in the last few years. Maybe this explains warmer winters! My native town lost a lot of money as we have a very well developed sky resort, yet we had less and less snow each year..

By the way, the ozone layer starts at 13-15 km above sea level, That area is always winter..

reply to post by Romanian

A reduction of ozone wouldn't really affect temperatures.

It is the longer wavelengths of solar radiation (infrared) which heat the surface. Ozone absorbs ultraviolet (shortwave), it has no effect on infrared.

So nobody knows the implications of a dissapearing OZONE?

reply to post by Phage


Yep. u are right, I am reading it now also from Wiki. On a positive note, we would get more vitamin D

Increases in surface UVB due to the ozone hole can be partially inferred by radiative transfer model calculations, but cannot be calculated from direct measurements because of the lack of reliable historical (pre-ozone-hole) surface UV data, although more recent surface UV observation measurement programmes exist (e.g. at Lauder, New Zealand).

reply to post by EmperorXyn

Increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation is not good for living things.

The CFCs which lead to increased depletion of ozone are still there. Even though their use has been greatly curtailed it will probably be decades before they dissipate to the point where they will not affect ozone levels.

The seasonal changes are normal. The extent of the Antarctic depletion is due to CFCs.

reply to post by EmperorXyn


well, this explains it a bit:

www.ozonedepletion.info...

Even though there is a global agreement to ban CFC's, there are still parts of the world that are using them as this is all the technology they have. Then there is all kinds of other new products and techniques that are getting developed and used that has unknown repercussions on the ozone and other layers of the atmosphere.

From what I have seen over the years it does look like the ozone hole is still growing. The global ban on CFC's did have some impact and has reduced the expansion, but there is a lot more going on.

The simple answer is human development with the ozone layer just one of many interactions of climate change. For the complex answer you need to start taking samples of just what exactly is happening in this region.

i remember years ago there was regular talk about the ozone. no one mentions it anymore. it's obviously not good that there is a hole in it. i don't know why you don't hear about it now.

This is not new thing for me. Ozone hole was bigger than usually last summer because we had one of coldest winters in long time. Cold winter depleted ozone and like Phage says, Sun radiation forms ozone, but during winter months there is less sun radiation..

Some parts of northern hemisphere had very large ozone layers, like Siberia. UV index was crazy there.

North Ozone Hole now moved above Netherlands, N. Germany , Denmark and parts of UK:



I do not believe that 24 % drop is significant, however still worth mentioning it I guess.