Frequently Asked Questions About Ozone (2)
Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998
Executive Summary
World Meteorological Organization Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project - Report No. 44
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
World Meterological Organization
European Commission
United Nations Environment Programme
What is the evidence that stratospheric ozone is destroyed by chlorine and bromine?
Numerous laboratory investigations and analyses of worldwide measurements made in the stratosphere have demonstrated that chlorine- and bromine-containing chemicals destroy ozone molecules.
Research studies in the laboratory show that chlorine (Cl) reacts very rapidly with ozone. They also show that the reactive chemical chlorine monoxide (ClO) formed in that reaction can undergo further processes that regenerate the original chlorine, allowing the sequence to be repeated very many times (a chain reaction). Similar reactions also take place between bromine and ozone.
But do these ozone-destroying reactions occur in the "real world"? All the accumulated scientific experience demonstrates that the same chemical reactions do take place in nature. Many other reactions (including those of other chemical species) are often also taking place simultaneously in the stratosphere. This makes the connections among the changes difficult to untangle. Nevertheless, whenever chlorine (or bromine) and ozone are found together in the stratosphere, the ozone-destroying reactions are taking place.
Sometimes a small number of chemical reactions are so dominant in the natural circumstance that the connections are almost as clear as in laboratory experiments. Such a situation occurs in the Antarctic stratosphere during the springtime formation of the ozone hole. Independent measurements made by instruments from the ground and from balloons, aircraft, and satellites have provided a detailed understanding of the chemical reactions in the Antarctic stratosphere. Large areas reach temperatures so low (less than 80°C, or 112°F) that stratospheric clouds form, which is a rare occurrence, except during the polar winters. These polar stratospheric clouds allow chemical reactions that transform chlorine species from forms that do not cause ozone depletion into forms that do cause ozone depletion. Among the latter is chlorine monoxide, which initiates ozone destruction in the presence of sunlight. The amount of reactive chlorine in such regions is therefore much higher than that observed in the middle latitudes, which leads to much faster chemical ozone destruction. The chemical reactions occurring in the presence of these clouds are now well understood from studies under laboratory conditions that mimic those found naturally in the atmosphere.
Scientists have repeatedly observed a large number of chemical species over Antarctica since 1986. Among the chemicals measured were ozone and chlorine monoxide, which is the reactive chemical identified in the laboratory as one of the participants in the ozone-destroying chain reactions. The satellite maps shown in the figure below relate the accumulation of chlorine monoxide observed over Antarctica and the subsequent ozone depletion that occurs rapidly in a few days over very similar areas.
Similar reactions involving chlorine and bromine have also been shown to occur during winter and spring in the Arctic polar regions, which leads to some chemical depletion of ozone in that region. Because the Arctic is not usually as persistently cold as the Antarctic, fewer stratospheric clouds form, and therefore there is less ozone depletion in the Arctic, which is the subject of a later question.
Chlorine Monoxide and the Antarctic Ozone Hole: Late August 1996
Frequently Asked Questions about Ozone
- Introduction
- How can chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) get to the stratosphere if they're heavier than air?
- [What is the evidence that stratospheric ozone is destroyed by chlorine and bromine?]
- Does most of the chlorine in the stratosphere come from human or natural sources?
- Can natural changes such as the Sun's output and volcanic erruptions be responsible for the observed changes in ozone?
- When did the Antarctic ozone hole first appear?
- Why has an ozone hole appeared over Antarctica when CFCs and halons are released mainly in the Northern Hemisphere?
- Is there an ozone hole over the Arctic?
- Is the depletion of the ozone layer leading to an increase in ground-level ultraviolet radiation?
- Does ozone depletion cause climate change?
- How severe is the ozone depletion now?
- Is the ozone layer expected to recover? If so, when?
Return to the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998
- Executive Summary
- Frequently Asked Questions about Ozone
- List of Authors, Contributors, and Reviewers of the Assessment
The World Wide Web version of the Executive Summary of the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998 was prepared by Catherine A. Burgdorf of the NOAA Aeronomy Lab, Boulder, Colorado, in cooperation with Dr. Daniel L. Albritton and Dr. Christine A. Ennis of the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory.
The Executive Summary may be reproduced or excerpted, without modification, provided the source is duly and conspicuously acknowledged in every instance as:
World Meteorological Organization, Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998, WMO Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project - Report No. 44, Geneva, 1998.
Copies of the Executive Summary are available at no charge by writing to:
United Nations Environment Programme
Ozone Secretariat
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya
The Executive Summary was published in print in March 1999. The World Wide Web version was derived directly from the source of the printed edition and was made public in April 1999.