"Ozone destruction" refers to the process in which the ozone layer, a protective layer in the Earth's atmosphere, is being damaged or depleted. This usually occurs due to the release of certain chemicals, like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), into the atmosphere.
Ozone destruction is a significant environmental issue, as it allows harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun to reach the Earth's surface, leading to various health and environmental problems.
Full definition
Due to the temperature dependence on the rates of chemical reactions involving ozone, cooler temperatures also lead to
more ozone destruction.
Outside polar regions, where
chemical ozone destruction is less pronounced but potentially harmful to human health, it appears as if ozone levels are beginning to increase.
Aircraft emissions probably play a crucial role in
ozone destruction by fuelling the formation of polar stratospheric clouds.
In addition, particles of these clouds may descend and withdraw reactive nitrogen from the chlorine - activated layer — active chlorine is one of the substances mainly responsible
for ozone destruction.
«Anytime you introduce even initially unreactive surfaces into the stratosphere, you get reactions that ultimately result in
ozone destruction as they are coated with sulfuric acid,» said Keutsch.
«Instead of trying to minimize the reactivity of the aerosol, we wanted a material that is highly reactive but in a way that would
avoid ozone destruction.»
But you don't want to have people going off and doing things that involve large radioactive forgings, or programs that go on for extended periods or for that matter provide lots of reactive surfaces that could results in
significant ozone destruction.»
Recently, additional ozone production mechanisms have been proposed to resolve the ozone deficit problem, which arises from
greater ozone destruction than production in several photochemical models of the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere.
The formation of large areas of high pressure in the lower atmosphere both lowers ozone levels, by squeezing the ozone layer above, and may provide the very cold conditions in
which ozone destruction is greatest.
Then they used models of the stratosphere and tweaking the chemistry, found that calcite, one of the most common compounds in Earth's crust, could
prevent ozone destruction «by neutralizing emissions - borne acids in the atmosphere, while also reflecting light and cooling the planet.»
In the upper stratosphere (beyond the protection of the ozone layer), ultraviolet light caused CFCs to break apart, releasing chlorine, a very reactive atom that repeatedly
catalyzes ozone destruction.
It is a template for
how ozone destruction by human produced Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) was a test run for the deception that human CO2 is causing global warming.
Since then we learned among other things that UV varies considerably, Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC)
affect ozone destruction, there is no empirical evidence that CFCs were destroying ozone.
This is partly because CFC concentrations (that enhance
stratospheric ozone destruction) are only expected to decrease slowly as a function of restrictions imposed by the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments.
«Instead of trying to minimize the reactivity of the aerosol, we wanted a material that is highly reactive but in a way that would
avoid ozone destruction.»
But you don't want to have people going off and doing things that involve large radioactive forgings, or programs that go on for extended periods or for that matter provide lots of reactive surfaces that could result in
significant ozone destruction.»
The chemical balance in the stratosphere is changed significantly by the presence of these clouds, altering the breakdown products from manmade CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) so that rapid
chemical ozone destruction can occur in the presence of sunlight.
The other key factor is that even if chemical conversion into reactive forms occurs during the cold, dark polar winter, the reactive chlorine must stick around until sunlight returns to the polar region
for ozone destruction to take place.
Bromine destroys ozone 50 times more efficiently than chlorine, the most infamous player
in ozone destruction.
The concentration of pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) represents one key factor in
ozone destruction, but weather conditions impact the hole as well.
Since the discovery of the ozone hole above the Antarctic, scientists have been studying the Arctic stratosphere intensively to determine how primed it is for
ozone destruction.
«These extra particles may enhance the heterogeneous reactions, leading to
ozone destruction, and this ozone depletion above Antarctica may worsen in 1992 by spreading to altitudes beyond the 12 to 20 kilometres layer.»
And in the lower stratosphere, where
the ozone destruction is concentrated, this figure may rise to 60 per cent.