What is bad about the ozone hole?
Ozone depletion can cause increased amounts of UV radiation to reach the Earth which can lead to more cases of skin cancer, cataracts, and impaired immune systems. Overexposure to UV is believed to be contributing to the increase in melanoma, the most fatal of all skin cancers.
Does the ozone hole cause global warming?
While some extra of the Sun’s UV rays slip through the ozone hole, their net effect is to cool the stratosphere more than they warm the troposphere. The ozone hole is not causing global warming, but it is affecting atmospheric circulation.
Where is the bad ozone located?
troposphere
Where is good ozone found?
Ozone occurs naturally at low concentrations throughout the Earth’s atmosphere. In the stratosphere, which extends from about 10 to 50 km above the Earth’s surface, ozone is ‘good’ as it protects life on Earth from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
What does ozone do to lungs?
When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and throat irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections.
How ozone is created?
Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O2). The “ozone layer,” approximately 6 through 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth’s surface.
Can ozone layer be created?
Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally by chemical reactions involving solar ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) and oxygen molecules, which make up 21% of the atmosphere. In the first step, solar ultraviolet radiation breaks apart one oxygen molecule (O2) to produce two oxygen atoms (2 O) (see Figure Q2-1).
Why is ozone only in stratosphere?
Stratospheric “good” ozone The natural level of ozone in the stratosphere is a result of a balance between sunlight that creates ozone and chemical reactions that destroy it. Ozone is created when the kind of oxygen we breathe—O2—is split apart by sunlight into single oxygen atoms.
How is the ozone layer doing 2020?
For much of the 2020 season, stratospheric ozone concentrations around 20 to 25 km of altitude (50-100hPa) reached near-zero values with the ozone layer depth as low as 94 Dobson Units (a unit of measurement), or approximately one third of its normal value.
What level of ozone is harmful?
These ozone molecules form the ozone layer and are commonly referred to as “good ozone.” At concentrations as high as 12,000 ppb (the EPA considers anything over 70 ppb to be unhealthy for human health and welfare) this ozone protects and shields people, trees, crops, property, and microorganisms from the harmful …
Is the Ozone Hole permanent?
Scientists have found evidence that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is finally beginning to heal. If progress continues, it should be closed permanently by 2050.
Is the ozone hole over Australia?
The ozone layer is depleted in two ways. Firstly, the ozone layer in the mid-latitude (e.g. over Australia) is thinned, leading to more UV radiation reaching the earth. Secondly, the ozone layer over the Antarctic, and to a lesser extent the Arctic, is dramatically thinned in spring, leading to an ‘ozone hole’.
How big is the ozone hole?
about 9.6 million square miles
How bad is the ozone layer 2020?
On September 20, 2020, the annual ozone hole reached its peak area at 24.8 million square kilometers (9.6 million square miles), roughly three times the size of the continental United States. Aura’s Microwave Limb Sounder also estimates levels of ozone-destroying chlorine.
Where was the ozone hole discovered in 1985?
Antarctica
What are the 2 types of ozone?
There are two types of ozone, both “good” ozone and “bad” ozone.