Frequently Asked Questions About Ozone (8)
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
Is the Depletion of the Ozone Layer Leading to an Increase in Ground-Level Ultraviolet Radiation?
The depletion of the ozone layer leads, on the average, to an increase in ground-level ultraviolet radiation, because ozone is an effective absorber of ultraviolet radiation.
The Sun emits radiation over a wide range of energies, with about 2% in the form of high-energy, ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Some of this UV radiation (UV-B) is especially effective in causing damage to living beings, for example, sunburn, skin cancer, and eye damage to humans. The amount of solar UV radiation received at any particular location on the Earth's surface depends upon the position of the Sun above the horizon, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere, and local cloudiness and pollution. Scientists agree that, in the absence of changes in clouds or pollution, decreases in atmospheric ozone lead to increases in ground-level UV radiation.
The largest decreases in ozone during the past 15 years have been observed over Antarctica, especially during each September and October when the ozone hole forms. During the last several years, simultaneous measurements of UV radiation and total ozone have been made at several Antarctic stations. In the late spring, the biologically damaging ultraviolet radiation in parts of the Antarctic continent can exceed that in San Diego, California, where the Sun is much higher above the horizon.
In areas or the world where smaller ozone depletion has been observed, UV-B increases are more difficult to detect. In particular, detection of trends in UV-B radiation associated with ozone decreases can be further complicated by changes in cloudiness, by local pollution, and by difficulties in keeping the detection instrument in precisely the same operating condition over many years. Prior to the late 1980s, instruments with the necessary accuracy and stability for measurement of small long-term trends in ground-level UV-B were not available. Therefore, the data from urban locations with older, less-specialized instruments provide much less reliable information, especially since simultaneous measure-ments of changes in cloudiness or local pollution are not available. When high-quality measurements have been made in other areas far from major cities and their associated air pollution, decreases in ozone have regularly been accompanied by increases in UV-B. This is shown in the figure below, where clear-sky measurements performed at six different stations demonstrate that ozone decreases lead to increased UV-B radiation at the surface in amounts that are in good agreement with that expected from calculations (the "model" curve).
Increases in Erythemal (Sunburning) Ultraviolet Radiation Due to Ozone Decreases
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.