Ozone Hole

Why is the ozone hole still growing?

The Antarctic ozone hole is an area of the Antarctic stratosphere in which the recent ozone levels have dropped to as low as 33% of their pre-1975 values. The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from September to early December, as strong westerly winds start to circulate around the continent and create an atmospheric container. Within this "polar vortex", over 50% of the lower stratospheric ozone is destroyed during the Antarctic spring.

"From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America

"These numbers mean the ozone is virtually gone in this layer of the atmosphere," said David Hofmann, director of the Global Monitoring Division at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. "The depleted layer has an unusual vertical extent this year, so it appears that the 2006 ozone hole will go down as a record-setter."

Learn More

How does this effect polar ice caps?

Parts of the polar regions, Antarctica and the Arctic, are already warming two to three times faster than the global average, which is predicted to be between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius this century. More heat is absorbed by the sea than by ice and this promotes faster melting because less sunlight is being reflected back into space.

* Climate models predict global warming will be most acute in polar regions. Some predict an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice in the Arctic before the end of the century -- meaning polar bears, which depend on the sea ice to hunt seals and move around, are unlikely to survive.

* The Greenland Ice Sheet, the Arctic's largest glacial mass, constitutes 10 percent of the world's freshwater reserves. It is currently melting faster than new ice is being formed. If all Greenland ice melted, the world's oceans would rise by seven metres (23 feet).

* Polar regions act as natural "sinks" for the world's toxic chemicals. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are carried to the Arctic by air and ocean currents and enter the food chain of marine mammals and seabirds.

* The Arctic is a partially frozen ocean. Its snow-covered tundra and forests has few native species but is home to four million people, of whom 10 percent are indigenous. In the southern hemisphere, Antarctica is a continent surrounded by ocean. About 99 percent of Antarctica is covered by ice and is home to large populations of marine birds and seals.

http://www.javno.com/en/lifestyle/clanak.php?id=50080

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/ozone_record.html

Click to go to

More Ozone

Arctic Ozone Depletion Linked to Longevity of Polar Stratospheric Clouds - Click & go

CFC's have been on the decline since 2000, yet the largest ozone hole was October 2006 and scientists are beginning to wonder why the hole isn't closing. The IPCC can't measure the effects of solar particles that deplete ozone accurately and they don't consider radio pollution at all!