Study: The Ozone Layer Is Repairing Itself, Affecting Wind Flow

upper atmosphere sky clouds

While most people’s focus remains directed at the coronavirus pandemic, some good news has emerged: a hole in our ozone layer is now in recovery.

The hole—located above Antarctica—is continuing to recover and bringing changes in atmospheric circulation as a result, according to New Scientist.

Many dangerous changes are being brought to a halt in the atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere due to the ongoing recovery.

Ozone depletion began to bring air currents in the Southern Hemisphere further south in the 1980s. This caused a change in ocean currents and rainfall patterns.

Global News reported that the new changes suggest that a ban on producing ozone-depleting substances, called the 1987 Montreal Protocol, is now having a positive effect on the world.

On Wednesday, a research paper released in Science Daily showed that the ozone layer has started recovery due to changing wind patterns.

Antara Banerjee and her colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder did the research and noted that the ozone layer in the Northern Hemisphere is on track to fully recover to its 1980s levels sometime in the 2030s.

They added that in the Southern Hemisphere should return to that state by the 2050s. The Antarctic hole is expected to take longer and is estimated to recover by the 2060s.

The recovery is not in direct correlation to the coronavirus outbreak, though positive changes in the environment are beginning to be seen as emissions are decreased around the world.

Economic activity has been drastically limited amid the rapid spread of coronavirus resulting in less CO2 emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Severe Weather Europe conducted a study showing that the Northern Hemisphere’s colder months usually bring an increase in CO2 emissions though that hasn’t been the case this year.

Read rest at The Post Millenial


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Comments (7)

  • Avatar

    Jan Sevenhans

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    In the earth rotational centrifuge, the ozone layer gets up to 20->30km altitude.
    The centrifugal force goes to zero on the poles so there the ozone comes down to get distributed by wind.
    So there will always be 2 holes in the ozone layer, 1 hole for each pole …

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Jerry Krause

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      Hi Jan and Herb,,

      Good thought Jan but you and Herb both seem to ignore a seasonal influence which and that the atmosphere has no surface. Hence, toward the poles the more ozone is being produced higher atmosphere than that at the poles when the sunshine or twilight at the poles.

      But Jan your reminder that there is little to hindered subsidence of the atmosphere at any altiitude when a dense cold surface layer moves from under the warmer atmosphere above it (temperature inversion) toward lower latitudes aided by centrifugal effect.

      Have a good day, Jerry

      .

      Reply

  • Avatar

    Herb Rose

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    Ozone is created when uv light breaks an O2 molecule into 2 O atoms and one of those atoms combines with O2 to form O3. The O3 molecule is unstable and will spontaneously (without external cause like uv) decompose over time (depending on temperature) 2 O3> 3O2. In the winter there is no uv to create more O3. The natural degradation of O3 produces the hole. The concentration of O3 molecules in the ozone layer is 10 ppm, not enough to absorb anything.
    Herb

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Finn McCool

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    Was the hole in ozone layer there before it was discovered?

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Herb Rose

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      Hi Finn,
      In today’s physics it is the observer who creates the reality so it’s hard to say.
      The ozone is created by uv light. The solar uv originates in solar flares so I would expect that the ozone hole will increase in size as solar flares decrease and fewer O2 molecules are converted to oxygen
      atoms.
      Before plants evolved there was no O2 in the atmosphere to absorb uv, only CO2, so maybe that is why plants have cell walls while animals don’t.
      Herb

      Reply

    • Avatar

      Andy Rowlands

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      As I understand it, there never was a ‘hole’. There is a natural thinning of the layer at the poles, which waxes and wanes from interactions with the magnetic field lines and charged particles from the Sun. Shown in false colour and concentric circles, it looks like a bullseye, and people said the centre was the ‘hole’.

      Reply

      • Avatar

        Herb Rose

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        Hi Andy,
        You are right that it’s not really a hole.
        I am not sure about it resulting from charged particles though which are produced continuously..Why would the particles produce a thinning at one pole and not the other at the same time?
        O3 is unstable and will decay without help. The fact that the “hole” appears in winter when there is less uv light over the pole to create new O3 would indicate to me that it is a natural result of O3 decaying with less being formed to replace it. This may be why it maximizes a couple of months after the start of winter just as the coldest days occur later in the season.
        Herb

        Reply

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