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Mar 31, 2011

Arctic Ozone Levels Dropped By As Much As Half In The Past Year

Check out the stark difference between these two satellite images, taken on March 19, 2010 and March 19, 2011. The left image shows much more ozone (in red) over the Arctic than the right image. What's happened?

These maps come from NASA's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), aboard theAura satellite. The two images tell a stark tale of rapid ozone depletion. OMI uses a spectrometer that measures the amount of sunlight scattered by Earth's atmosphere and surface, which gives a sense of how much ozone exists at different levels, including the stratosphere.

In mid-March, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute reported that Arctic ozone levels had been cut in half towards the end of winter, based on data from 30 ozone-sounding stations around the region.

The good news is, Arctic ozone levels fluctuate from year to year, and ozone "holes" don't form as consistently as they do in the Antarctic. It remains to be seen whether this ozone depletion will actually lead to increases in the intensity of ultraviolet radiation in the Arctic.

But still, the question of why ozone levels dropped so starkly this year remains, and nobody has a good answer. There are still a lot of ozone-depleting chemicals like CFCs in the atmosphere, despite their regulation by the Montreal Protocol. It'll take a long time for the concentration of these chlorines to decline, because these chemicals have a long lifespan. And the process of ozone depletion is intensified when the stratosphere is especially cold, which has been the case in recent weeks.

10 comments:

Jessica Thompson said...

Wow that's super intense. Check me out, alphabetalife.blogspot.com

Biff Tanner said...

Lol ditto^

Jay said...

i hope it's not a trend...

Give Everything said...

the mayans are watching, eating popcorn...and laughing

Green Bus said...

This will not make any changes in our practical life. So, no reason to be worried.

Anonymous said...

Nooo im helping the earn placing some trees in my property but that wont restore the ozone.

Guy Movie Blogger said...

Don't worry. As long as we have Jake Gyllenhaal to save us we're all good.

Anonymous said...

that´s alarming stuff!

psyke said...

Right now, there's a huge hole inside the ozone layer right above my country. Staying indoors.

Amberclad said...

wondering how this will evolve in the future... well, whatever the end world will end 2012 anyways.. so we can care less :D jest jokin' ;)