Earth’s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover,

winston53660 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-22-2014, 12:32 AM

Earth’s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phaseout since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported last week in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.

Scientists said the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis. For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radiation that causes skin cancer, crop damage and other problems.

From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scientist Paul A. Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations.

Earth?s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, a U.N. panel reports - The Washington Post

zoriolus · #2 (**permalink**) 09-22-2014, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by winston53660

Earth’s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phaseout since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported last week in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.

Scientists said the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis. For the first time in 35 years, scientists were able to confirm a statistically significant and sustained increase in stratospheric ozone, which shields the planet from solar radiation that causes skin cancer, crop damage and other problems.

From 2000 to 2013, ozone levels climbed 4 percent in the key mid-northern latitudes at about 30 miles up, said NASA scientist Paul A. Newman. He co-chaired the every-four-years ozone assessment by 300 scientists, released at the United Nations.

Earth?s protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, a U.N. panel reports - The Washington Post

Where's the data? I looked at a video showing the southern hemisphere in progress from 1979 and it basically stops in 1990. Unless there is something else, the science seems thinner than the O3 layer. The WaPo article gives no clue. Here's another article with the video.

Good news: The hole in the ozone layer is finally starting to heal - Vox

waltky · #3 (**permalink**) 11-03-2017, 04:25 PM

UPDATE:

Antarctic ozone hole shrinking...

NASA: Earth's Ozone Hole Shrinks to Smallest Since 1988
November 02, 2017 | WASHINGTON — The ozone hole over Antarctica shrank to its smallest peak since 1988, NASA said Thursday.

Quote:

The huge hole in Earth's protective ozone layer reached its maximum this year in September, and this year NASA said it was 7.6 million square miles (19.6 million square kilometers). The hole size shrinks after mid-September. This year's maximum hole is more than twice as big as the United States, but it's 1.3 million square miles smaller than last year and 3.3 million square miles smaller than 2015.

Paul Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said stormy conditions in the upper atmosphere warmed the air and kept the chemicals chlorine and bromine from eating ozone. He said scientists haven't quite figured out why some years are stormier — and have smaller ozone holes — than others. "It's really small this year. That's a good thing,'' Newman said.

A false-color view of total ozone over the Antarctic pole is seen in this NASA handout image released Oct. 24, 2012. The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone. The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole in that year was the second smallest in two decades, at 8.2 million square miles; in September 2017, it was 7.6 million square miles.

Newman said this year's drop is mostly natural but is on top of a trend of smaller steady improvements likely from the banning of ozone-eating chemicals in a 1987 international treaty. The ozone hole hit its highest in 2000 at 11.5 million square miles (29.86 million square kilometers). Ozone is a colorless combination of three oxygen atoms. High in the atmosphere, about 7 to 25 miles (11 to 40 kilometers) above the Earth, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, crop damage and other problems.

Scientists at the United Nations a few years ago determined that without the 1987 treaty, by 2030 there would have been an extra 2 million skin cancer cases. They said that overall, the ozone layer is beginning to recover because of the phase-out of chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans.

https://www.voanews.com/a/nasa-says-...t/4098158.html

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