Emerged over the Arctic last winter ozone hole was the most “profound” on record (more than 20 years) and closer in size to the Antarctic ozone hole.
The sharp decline in stratospheric ozone, “ozone hole” was first discovered in 1980 over Antarctica. According to modern concepts, the destruction of ozone (triatomic oxygen O3) is associated with exposure to substances of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), the most famous of which is a group of freon.
Under the action of sunlight and stratospheric cooling, these substances form a corrosive chlorine compounds that destroy the ozone layer – a shield that protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation hard. In 1987 he was adopted by the Montreal Protocol, which prohibits the production of CFC, however, in their natural disappearance will take several decades.
In winter and spring of 2010-2011, was first observed in the Arctic, a process that could be called the formation of the ozone hole. In early April, the World Meteorological Organization said that the amount of ozone in the atmosphere in the Arctic this winter has decreased by a record amount – 40%.
A team led by Manny Gloria (Gloria Manney) from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, analyzed in detail the formation of the ozone hole, and concluded that this event was unprecedented in its scope, and if the winter in the Arctic will be slightly more severe drop in the concentration ozone would be even more dramatic.
“For the first time here in the North this is happening. Reducing the amount of ozone in the Arctic, it was always much lower than in the Antarctic. In 1994-1995, it was falling by 30%, but this had never happened. Now the fall was 40%, it is comparable to Antarctica, the ozone hole there 50% -60%. The procedure is the same “- RIA Novosti said one of the authors of the study, Valery Dorokhov, senior researcher of the Central Upper-Air Observatory Hydromet.
The ozone hole in the polar regions, occurs when, due to low temperatures in the stratosphere (below 78 degrees Celsius) water vapor and nitric acid form a so-called polar stratospheric clouds. These clouds are cold, and other long-lived aerosols give chlorine compounds, particularly chlorofluorocarbons, the ability to transform into highly active compounds such as chlorine monoxide, which “kill” the ozone.
