[cogitator]

And a very interesting fit to the data. Sinusiodal. I wonder what the next 25 years will show... and the 25 years after that. Maybe there's more going on here than the anti-CFC crowd thinks.

My first guess is that there's a lower limit to how far the ozone concentration can drop, and until the chlorine concentrations decrease substantially, the ozone concentration in the hole will go about this low every year, plus or minus a few Dobson units. But we'll have to wait a few more years to see what happens.

[ArrogantBustard]

My guess is that the phenomenon is cyclic, with a longer period than we've been measuring. I used to work in the Earth remote sensing business, on a similar topic. My impression at the time was that we needed several decades of data, with significant overlaps between sensors, before we can make any reasonable statements about what conditions are "normal", and whether our industrial activities have anything to do with climatic variations. We're at best halfway there, IMPO.

[Old Professer]

The theory worked out by Molina and verified by Rowland does not allow for a low-limit to destruction as the effect is catalytic and there is no assumed loss of the catalyst proffered; I have boxes of studies and research on this subject.

Not one human death has yet been blamed or can be blamed on the loss of atmospheric ozone.

For every four molecules of oxygen, the sun can ionize three ozone molecules; since there are roughly 210,000PPM of O2 in the atmosphere a slice of 350PPM gives an efficiency rating of about .00167 - this implies that there is an upper-limit to the creation of ozone and allows for the constant breaking down of the unstable molecule.

For those couple of days when the ozone levels are expected or known to be low maybe the local cable system could rerun some Father Knows Best shows.