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Huge 2004 Stratospheric Ozone Loss Tied To Solar Storms, Arctic Winds
SpaceDaily.com ^

Posted on 03/03/2005 4:39:23 AM PST by nuke rocketeer

A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates that two natural atmospheric processes in 2004 caused the largest decline in upper stratospheric ozone ever recorded over the far Northern Hemisphere. According to Research Associate Cora Randall of CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide gases in the upper stratosphere climbed to the highest levels in at least two decades in spring 2004.

The increases led to ozone reductions of up to 60 percent roughly 25 miles in altitude above Earth's high northern latitudes, said Randall.

"This decline was completely unexpected," she said. "The findings point out a critical need to better understand the processes occurring in the ozone layer."

Randall is chief author of a paper on the subject appearing in the March 2 online issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union.

Randall worked with an international team of scientists from the United States, Canada and Europe to look at data from seven different satellites, concluding both the sun and stratospheric weather were responsible for the ozone declines.

Winds in the upper part of a massive winter low-pressure system that confines air over the Arctic region, known as the polar stratospheric vortex, sped up in February and March 2004 to become the strongest on record, she said.

The spinning vortex allowed the nitrogen gases, believed by the team to have formed at least 20 miles above the stratosphere as a result of chemical reactions triggered by energetic particles from the sun, to descend more easily into the stratosphere.

The increases in the two nitrogen gases - collectively known as NOx - are important because they are major players in the stratospheric ozone destruction process, said Randall.

The team concluded that some of the extra NOx seen in the springtime was actually formed after huge quantities of energetic particles from the sun bombarded Earth's atmosphere during the Halloween solar storms of 2003.

"No one predicted the dramatic loss of ozone in the upper stratosphere of the northern hemisphere in the spring of 2004," she said. "That we can still be surprised illustrates the difficulties in separating atmospheric effects due to natural and human-induced causes.

"This study demonstrates that scientists searching for signs of ozone recovery need to factor in the atmospheric effects of energetic particles, something they do not now do."

The 2004 enhancements of NOx gases in the upper stratosphere and subsequent ozone losses occurred over the Arctic and the northern areas of North America, Europe and Asia, said the paper authors.

Severe ozone losses also can occur during winter and spring in the stratosphere at about 12 miles in altitude, driven primarily by very cold temperatures, they said.

Because of seasonal conditions, the researchers are unable to measure the precise contributions of solar storms and stratospheric weather to the NOx spike seen in the stratosphere last year.

"No observations of upper atmospheric nitrogen gases are available in the polar region in the winter, so the descending NOx cannot be traced to its origin," said Randall.

A form of oxygen, ozone protects life on Earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. The ozone layer has thinned markedly in high latitudes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in recent decades, primarily due to reactions involving chlorofluorocarbons and other industrial gases.

Scientists believe the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international agreement that has phased out the production and use of such ozone-destroying compounds, may allow the protective ozone layer to be restored by the middle of this century.

The research team used data from satellite instruments, including POAM II, POAM III, SAGE II, SAGE III, HALOE, MIPAS and OSIRIS for the study.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; environment; environmentalism; ozone; ozonehole
Well, Well. Maybe it ain't those evil chloroflourocarbons after all. Maybe it is natural.
1 posted on 03/03/2005 4:39:24 AM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: nuke rocketeer

It's all Bush's fault. He and Rove control all the upper stratospheric storms via the evil GOP weather machine!!!! :)

Do I really need a sarcasm tag for that one?


2 posted on 03/03/2005 4:41:14 AM PST by MikefromOhio (The DUmmies: Showing us daily how screwed up people can really be!!!!)
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To: MikeinIraq

I think Algore should take a space ship full of his tree huggers to stage a protest on the sun.


3 posted on 03/03/2005 4:46:02 AM PST by Mobties
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To: nuke rocketeer

"A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder..."


Ward Churchill didn't have any input on this, did he?


4 posted on 03/03/2005 4:50:42 AM PST by Maria S (Prayer: Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!)
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To: nuke rocketeer

Ban the sun! This is an outrage. Join SUN, (Sun Undermining Nature), or SOLAR, (Save Our Lives All Ready), today!


5 posted on 03/03/2005 4:52:01 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Reading is fundamental. Comprehension is optional.)
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To: nuke rocketeer

Those chloroflourocarbons R12 are heavier than air so they fall instead of rise.


6 posted on 03/03/2005 4:54:56 AM PST by Ibredd
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To: nuke rocketeer

"This decline was completely unexpected," she said. "The findings point out a critical need to better understand the processes occurring in the ozone layer."

Yet we're to change the economics of the entire world via Kyoto?


7 posted on 03/03/2005 4:56:17 AM PST by Smartaleck
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To: Smartaleck

Yes, and its the atmospheric chemists that have led the charge on the 'man-made' global warming fiasco, based upon their claims of knowing exactly just how the Earth's atmosphere chemically reacts to everything!


8 posted on 03/03/2005 5:01:11 AM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: Ibredd
Those chloroflourocarbons R12 are heavier than air so they fall instead of rise.

That was something that puzzled me; how a molecule comprised of elements all which are heavier than oxygen or nitrogen could find its way to the top of the atmosphere. The other thing that left me nonplused was how this product of civilization would find it way to the furthest spot from civilization.
9 posted on 03/03/2005 5:02:44 AM PST by ElTianti
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To: nuke rocketeer
"This decline was completely unexpected," she said. "The findings point out a critical need to better understand the processes occurring in the ozone layer."

Ya think?
10 posted on 03/03/2005 5:05:12 AM PST by aruanan
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To: nuke rocketeer
No no no no no no no!
Dammit!

It's the refrigerants. It's all settled, let it be.

11 posted on 03/03/2005 5:14:05 AM PST by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are ignorance, stupidity and hydrogen)
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To: nuke rocketeer
Maybe it is natural.

That's also my hypothesis.

And it's an educated one since I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

12 posted on 03/03/2005 5:29:40 AM PST by b4its2late (This is like deja vu all over again.)
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To: nuke rocketeer

LOLOL......University of Colorado.....Boulder!!!!!


13 posted on 03/03/2005 5:29:44 AM PST by OldFriend (America's glory is not dominion, but liberty.)
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To: ElTianti
That was something that puzzled me; how a molecule comprised of elements all which are heavier than oxygen or nitrogen could find its way to the top of the atmosphere. The other thing that left me nonplused was how this product of civilization would find it way to the furthest spot from civilization.

I also wonder why the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for a theory on how this happens without any experimental proof.

14 posted on 03/03/2005 5:31:25 AM PST by DrDavid (Support Global Warming: Surf the Hebrides)
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To: b4its2late

You too? I stayed there last week! I've been a geniius ever since.


15 posted on 03/03/2005 5:31:59 AM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: Smartaleck
"This decline was completely unexpected," she said.

When God existed, he was the explanation for both those things that we did not understand and for those things which we did understand, but which were beyond the control of man.

Now that god does not exist and we have become GODs (and some eurocentric straight MEN have become the DEVIL) it is necessary to explain events in terms of the new GODs and DEVILs. Next, we build a tower of Babel... But this will not be Chicago's new Trump Tower ..... no, it will be the tower of babble where politically correct speech ... including explanations of events ... is the new GOD.

16 posted on 03/03/2005 5:42:24 AM PST by NormalGuy
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To: nuke rocketeer
"That we can still be surprised illustrates the difficulties in separating atmospheric effects due to natural and human-induced causes.

So, is this an admission that the Kyoto crowd doesn't know what they're talking about? That they're clueless about what drives climate?

17 posted on 03/03/2005 5:52:11 AM PST by Noachian (We're all one judge away from tyranny.)
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To: Noachian

Yep, but you'll never see that get wide distribution in the MSM.


18 posted on 03/03/2005 6:30:15 AM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: Ibredd
"Those chloroflourocarbons R12 are heavier than air so they fall instead of rise."

Under normal conditions. Chemicals react in the atmosphere when subjected to the presence of light, other chemicals yadda yadda yadda.
19 posted on 03/03/2005 7:20:59 AM PST by Smartaleck
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