Posted on 01/29/2005 6:48:15 AM PST by lafroste
The seasonal hole in the Arctic ozone layer could be the worst ever this year if the current cold conditions persist, scientists are warning.
Temperatures in the Arctic ozone layer are now the coldest for 50 years and have been consistently low for two months. The ozone layer blankets the Earth at an altitude between 15 to 30 kilometres. It is part of a zone called the stratosphere, and absorbs ultraviolet light.
European Union scientists said on Friday that if the exceptionally cold temperatures continue, and the persistent polar clouds - which alter the chemistry of the ozone layer - remain, then large ozone losses will be likely when spring sunlight returns in the coming weeks.
The researchers from the EU's SCOUT-03 project, which involves over 200 scientists from 19 countries, fear that the ozone hole could be bigger than that which followed the worst-ever winter of 1999-2000. Over 65% of the ozone was eaten away by manmade chemical products in that season, although ozone can naturally replenish itself.
"The meteorological conditions we are now witnessing resemble and even surpass the harsh conditions of the 1999-2000 winter - when the worst ozone loss to date was observed," says Neil Harris at the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK.
A gaping hole in the Arctic ozone could mean higher levels of UV radiation in some inhabited areas in northern Europe, such as Scandinavia.
Polar vortex
But whether this massive loss of ozone occurs depends on whether the polar stratospheric clouds stick around for the next six to eight weeks, says Harris. "If the vortex breaks up then all bets are off," he told New Scientist.
These clouds form in the polar vortex which is whipped up in the stratosphere by westerly winds in late autumn. The air in the centre of the vortex can become extremely cold as it is isolated from the rest of the atmosphere and there is no sunlight in the dark polar winter to warm it.
When the temperature falls as far as -80°C, clouds start to form. These polar stratospheric clouds are chemically different from normal water clouds which form near the surface of the Earth, and they change the chemistry of the air in the vortex.
This chemical change means "you end up having chlorine from CFCs converted from forms that don't deplete ozone into forms that do", explains Harris. The chemical breakdown of ozone by the active chlorine form is triggered as sunlight starts to penetrate the polar region in spring.
The first signs of Arctic ozone loss have already been seen 20 km above the Earth, says Markus Rex at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany, a coordinator on the project.
And the polar clouds are forecasted to stay for at least the next 10 days, says Harris. But he cautions that predicting the weather in the stratosphere is no more reliable than regular weather predicting.
The enviro-nuts are becoming truely psychotic in their pronouncements of disaster. Notice the new boogey-man trial balloon "arctic clouds" malformed clouds so cold that they give rise to accelerated destructive chemical reactions turning benign atmospheric chlorine into ozone destructive arctic chlorine (who comes up with this stuff?).
I thought the purpose of the ozone layer was to protect us from solar UV radiation, if there is sunlight, what function does it serve? Further, ozone is constantly being replenished and destroyed, much faster than any of these models seem to predict.
Finally, the part that originally caught my attention "coldest winter in 50 years" was not blamed on global warming, a cause du jour suspiciously absent in this article.
So do we need some global warming to save ourselves from the hole in the ozone layer...?
As I look out my window here in Eastern Tennessee and see the trees all weighted down with ice I find myself wishing for some "global warming"........
---oh, no that was in the southern hemisphere-woe is me---!!!
Global Warming is the ultimate unfalsifiable hypothesis. All observations confirm its truth. Further it is conflated with any and all natural or human phenomena: tsunami, earthquake, ozone hole, sunspots, obliquity of the ecliptic, the equation of time, the price of beer...
Everyone knows that President Bush is the cause of everything, no matter what it is.
I always wondered why those Norskies were so dingy.
Just wait. When it becomes obvious that it is getting colder, the enviro-wackos will demand that the Government step up the production and release of fluorocarbons to help warm the atmosphere.
Wasn't there another article just a couple of weeks ago complaining about the Arctic being warmer than it has been in decades, and the ice was melting and polar bears were becoming endangered?
There are so many conflicting reports.
Of course, most 'scientists' and related organizations need to publish reports to keep their funding.
D*mn global warming.
Nah...what you really want is some serious local warming.
My favorite is cow or sheep flatulence!
---maybe we can smuggle them in from the nearest third-world country--
Ozone depletion isn't really related to global warming (which you probably knew). Here's what NASA has to say http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Ozone/ozone.html
WEEEESA GONNA DIIIIIEE!!
}:-)4
http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/
Rolicking good fun on the UN/global warming scam...and the UN took credit for everything the USAID and others did in the weeks following the tsunami...They HAVE NO SHAME.
Whenever it is warmer than average, it is proof positive of global warming. Whenever it is colder than average it is also proof positive of global warming.
Can we have global cooling now? Can we huh? Can we please? Please? You promised back in the 70's! I was sooooo looking forward to it.
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