24 December 1997. Ozone
Depletion FAQ Sample
Question--Subject: 1.3) How
does the composition of the
atmosphere change with altitude?
(Or, how can CFC's get up
to the stratosphere when they
are heavier than air?) Answer:
In the earth's troposphere
and stratosphere, most _stable_
chemical species are "well-mixed" -
their mixing ratios are independent
of altitude. If a species'
mixing ratio changes with
altitude, some kind of physical
or chemical transformation
is taking place. That last
statement may seem surprising
- one might expect the heavier
molecules to dominate at lower
altitudes. The mixing ratio
of Krypton (mass 84), then,
would decrease with altitude,
while that of Helium (mass
4) would increase. In reality,
however, molecules do not
segregate by weight in the
troposphere or stratosphere.
The relative proportions of
Helium, Nitrogen, and Krypton
are unchanged up to about
100 km. Why is this? Vertical
transport in the troposphere
takes place by convection
and turbulent mixing....
15 December 2004. NASA RELEASE: 04-397. NASA
Scientists Discuss Giant Atmospheric
Brown Cloud. NASA
scientists announced a giant, smoggy
atmospheric brown cloud, which forms
over South Asia and the Indian Ocean,
has intercontinental reach. The scientists
presented their findings today during
the American Geophysical Union Fall
meeting in San Francisco. The scientists
discussed the massive cloud's sources,
global movement and its implications.
The brown cloud is a moving, persistent
air mass characterized by a mixed-particle
haze. It also contains other pollution,
such as ozone. "Ozone is a triple-threat
player in the global environment.
There are three very different ways
ozone affects our lives," said
Robert Chatfield, a scientist at NASA's
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
Calif. "A protective layer of
good ozone, high in the atmosphere,
shields us from deadly ultraviolet
light that comes from the sun. Second,
bad or smog ozone near the surface
of Earth can burn our lungs and damage
crops. In our study, we are looking
at a third major effect of ozone,
that it can warm the planet, because
it is a powerful greenhouse gas,"
Chatfield said. "We found both
brown cloud pollution and natural
processes can contribute to unhealthy
levels of ozone in the troposphere
where we live and breathe. Some ozone
from the brown cloud rises to high
enough altitudes to spread over the
global atmosphere,"
Chatfield explained. Ozone from the
Earth's protective stratospheric layer,
produced by natural processes, can
migrate down to contribute to concentrations
in the lower atmosphere, according
to the scientists.
3
December 2003. NASA RELEASE: 03-394. The
Measure Of Water: NASA Creates New Map
For The Atmosphere. ...Scientists
have created the first detailed map
of water, containing heavy hydrogen
and heavy oxygen atoms, in and out of
clouds, from the surface to some 25
miles above the Earth, to better understand
the dynamics of how water gets into
the stratosphere. Only small amounts
of water reach the arid stratosphere,
10 to 50 kilometers (6 to 25 miles)
above Earth, so any increase in the
water content could potentially lead
to destruction of some ozone-shielding
capability in this part of the atmosphere.
This could produce larger ozone depletions
over the North and South Poles as well
as at mid-latitudes. ...[water] in the
lower atmosphere, the troposphere, controls
how much sunlight gets through to the
planet, how much is trapped in our skies,
and how much goes back out to space.
January 2001. Ozone.
(FS-2001-1-014-GSFC) [191KB PDF] Ozone
(O3) is a relatively unstable molecule
made up of three atoms of oxygen (O).
Although it represents only a tiny fraction
of the atmosphere, ozone is crucial
for life on Earth.
12
August 2001. NEWSWEEK COVER: JOHN
MCCAIN: MY BATTLE WITH SKIN CANCERIn
the August 20 issue of Newsweek, Arizona
Sen. John McCain and his wife Cindy
talk about his battle against skin
cancer. An accompanying report looks
at the increase in skin cancer, new
treatments being tested and a tribute
to Maureen Reagan who died from melanoma.
Dermatlasis
an international collaborative project
that enables health care professionals,
parents, and patients to access high
quality dermatology images on the
World Wide Web. The Dermatlas also
includes an online Dermatology
Quiz that allows trainees to test
their diagnostic skills.
9 Febuary 2004. NASA RELEASE: 04-057. SCIENTISTS
FIND OZONE-DESTROYING MOLECULE. Using
measurements from a NASA aircraft
flying over the Arctic, Harvard University
scientists have made the first observations
of a molecule that researchers have
long theorized plays a key role in
destroying stratospheric ozone, chlorine
peroxide. Thomas
Midgley
4
March 2002. FUTURE
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS MAY CAUSE OZONE
HOLE OVER ARCTIC -- An "ozone
hole" could form over the North Pole
after future major volcanic eruptions,
according to the cover story by a
NASA scientist in tomorrow's edition
of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
28
May 2002. A
WARM POLAR WINTER WAS EASIER ON ARCTIC
OZONE -- A
NASA researcher has found unusually
high levels of protective upper atmospheric
ozone in the Arctic as a result of a
rare sudden warming during the early
winter of 1998.
23
September 2003. RELEASE: 03-306. 2003
Ozone 'Hole' Approaches, But Falls
Short Of Record. This
year's Antarctic ozone hole is the
second largest ever observed, according
to scientists from NASA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), and the Naval Research Laboratory.
17
April 2001. WET
UPPER ATMOSPHERE MAY SLOW OZONE RECOVERY. Increasing
water vapor in the stratosphere, which
results partially from greenhouse gases,
may delay ozone recovery and increase
the rate of climate change. The new
study by NASA scientists in Geophysical
Research Letters is the first to link
greenhouse gases to increased ozone
depletion over populated areas.
8 November 2004. Analyzing
the Antarctic Ozone Hole.Part
of Earth Exploration Toolbook from
TERC. Users examine satellite images
that show how much ozone is in the
atmosphere over the Southern Hemisphere.
They interpret the images to identify
the ozone "hole" that develops
over this region every year during
the Southern Hemisphere's spring,
and compare its size from year to
year. Using freely available image
analysis software, ImageJ, users quantify
the area of the Antarctic ozone hole
each October from 1996 to 2004. Finally,
they bring their measurements into
a spreadsheet program and create a
graph to document changes in the size
of the ozone hole.
30
October 2002. NASA RELEASE: 02-211 --
NASA JOINS INTERNATIONAL OZONE STUDY
IN ARCTIC -- NASA
researchers will join more than 350
scientists from the United States, the
European Union, Canada, Iceland, Japan,
Norway, Poland, Russia and Switzerland
this winter to measure ozone and other
atmospheric gases using aircraft, large
and small balloons, ground-based instruments
and satellites. // This second SAGE
III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment
(SOLVE
II) campaign will be conducted in
close collaboration with the European
Commission, sponsored by the VINTERSOL (Validation
of International Satellites and Study
of Ozone Loss) campaign. (SAGE III stands
for the third Stratospheric Aerosol
and Gas Experiment.) SOLVE will take
place in Kiruna, Sweden, the site of
the first international effort during
the winter of 1999-2000. See: here, here,
and there
27 June 2007. NASA RELEASE: 07-144. NASA
AIRBORNE EXPEDITION CHASES CLIMATE, OZONE
QUESTIONS. WASHINGTON
-- NASA's Tropical Composition, Cloud
and Climate Coupling (TC4) field campaign
will begin this summer in San Jose, Costa
Rica, with an investigation into how chemical
compounds in the air are transported vertically
into the stratosphere and how that transport
affects cloud formation and climate.
The study will begin the week of July
16 with coordinated observations from
[7] satellites, [3] high-flying NASA research
aircraft, balloons and ground-based radar.
The targets of these measurements are
the gases, aerosols and ice crystals that
flow from the top of the strong storm
systems that form over the warm tropical
ocean. These storm systems pump air more
than 40,000 feet above Earth's surface,
where it can influence the composition
of the stratosphere, home of our planet's
protective ozone layer. ...The effort
runs through Aug. 8. It is NASA's largest
Earth science field campaign of the year. "A
mission this complex, with three aircraft,
deployment sites in Costa Rica and Panama,
and more than 400 people involved, can
be a real challenge," said Mission
Project Manager Marilyn Vasques of NASA
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif....
Along the coasts of Colombia and Panama
south of Costa Rica, the warm summer waters
of the Pacific Ocean are a fertile breeding
ground for the type of heat-driven, or
convective, storm systems the mission
is targeting. ...Mission scientists want
to know what effect a warming climate
with rising ocean temperatures will have
on the intensity of these storm systems.
...These tropical convective systems also
may play a role in the recovery of the
ozone layer. ...Mission scientists will
investigate whether the rapid movement
of air in these strong convective systems
provides an express route for ozone-destroying
compounds to reach the stratosphere. ...For
more information about NASA's TC4 mission,
visit: http://www.espo.nasa.gov/tc4
29 January 2007. Analyzing
the Antarctic Ozone Hole. NASA. The
Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than
ever. This troubling news was reported
in October by scientists from NASA
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. "Analyzing
the Antarctic Ozone Hole," a chapter
of the Web-based Earth Exploration Toolbook,
provides guidance and the tools necessary
for middle and high school students
to perform their own studies of the
ozone hole using data collected by a
NASA satellite instrument, the Total
Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. ...Using
image analysis software available online,
students quantify each year's ozone
hole by measuring the number of pixels
covered by colors representing ozone
levels below a certain threshold value.
Students then import their measurements
into a spreadsheet program where they
graph annual changes in the size of
the ozone hole. Students are encouraged
to consider what might account for the
year-to-year changes, to outline a plan
for finding out what could have caused
one year to be different than others,
and to develop a strategy for conducting
a similar study of the Northern Hemisphere's
Arctic region....
14 December 2006. NASA
TROPICAL OZONE STUDIES YIELD SURPRISES. NASA Earth
Observatory News. - Two new NASA-funded
studies of ozone in the tropics using
NASA satellite data are giving scientists
a fuller understanding of the processes
driving ozone chemistry and its impacts
on pollution and climate change.
19 October 2006. NASA
AND NOAA ANNOUNCE ANTARCTIC OZONE
HOLE IS A RECORD BREAKER (RELEASE:
06-338). NASA
and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) scientists report
this year's ozone hole in the polar
region of the Southern Hemisphere
has broken records for area and depth.
..."From September 21 to 30,
the average area of the ozone hole
was the largest ever observed, at
10.6 million square miles," said
Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric
weather conditions had been normal,
the ozone hole would be expected to
reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million
square miles, about the surface area
of North America. The Ozone Monitoring
Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite
measures the total amount of ozone
from the ground to the upper atmosphere
over the entire Antarctic continent.
...Scientists from NOAA's Earth System
Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.,
use balloon-borne instruments to measure
ozone directly over the South Pole.
...nearly all of the ozone in the
layer between eight and 13 miles above
the Earth's surface had been destroyed.
In this critical layer, the instrument
measured a record low of only 1.2
DU., having rapidly plunged from an
average non-hole reading of 125 DU
in July and August. "These numbers
mean the ozone is virtually gone in
this layer of the atmosphere," said
David Hofmann, director of the Global
Monitoring Division at the NOAA Earth
System Research Laboratory. ..."We
now have the largest ozone hole on
record," said Craig Long of NCEP.
As the sun rises higher in the sky
during October and November, this
unusually large and persistent area
may allow much more ultraviolet light
than usual to reach Earth's surface
in the southern latitudes.
23 January 2006. NASA
to Fly into Tropical "Portal" to
the Stratosphere. NASA
scientists are leading an airborne field
experiment to a warm tropical locale
to take a close look at a largely unexplored
region of the chilly upper atmosphere.
7 December 2005. Scientists
Say Recovery of the Ozone Layer May
Take Longer Than Expected. By
KENNETH CHANG, NY Times. SAN
FRANCISCO, Dec. 6 - The layer of ozone
in the earth's upper atmosphere, which
protects life from harmful ultraviolet
radiation but which has been damaged
by artificial chemicals, may take
a decade or two longer to recover
than previously thought, scientists
reported Tuesday. Until now, the ozone
layer had been expected to return
to its 1980 condition by about 2050.
But at a meeting of the American Geophysical
Union here, the scientists said new
measurements and computer simulations
suggested that continuing use of the
chemicals - chlorofluorocarbons, or
CFC's - would delay the recovery until
about 2065. Despite a ban on producing
the chemicals in industrialized countries
and the ready availability of substitute
chemicals, the United States and Canada
still account for about 15 percent
of current emissions, because CFC's
are still in use in older refrigerators
and air-conditioners....
28 September 2005. The
Role of Science in Environmental Policy
Making. Testimony
of The Honorable Richard E. Benedick,
Ambassador, ret. to the United States
Senate Committee on Environment
& Public Works. "The Case of
the Montreal Protocol: Science Serving
Public Policy" This testimony pertains
to efforts to solve the ozone hole problem,
but has lesson for other policy issues,
such as actions regarding climate change
or loss of biodiversity.
3 May 2004. NASA RELEASE : 04-147 NASA
Satellites And Balloons Spot Airborne
Pollution "Train" -- NASA
scientists discovered pollution
could catch an airborne "express
train," or wind current, from
Asia all the way to the southern
Atlantic Ocean. Scientists believe
during certain seasons, as much
as half of the ozone pollution above
the Atlantic Ocean may be speeding
down a "train" track of
air from the Indian Ocean. As it
rolls along, it picks up more smog
from air peppered with thunderstorms
that bring it up from the Earth's
surface. Bob Chatfield, a scientist
at NASA's Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, Calif. said, "Man-made
pollution from Asia can flow southward,
get caught up into clouds, and then
move steadily and rapidly westward
across Africa and the Atlantic,
reaching as far as Brazil." During
those periods of exceptionally high
ozone in the South Atlantic, especially
during late winter, researchers
noticed Indian Ocean pollution follows
a similar westward route, wafted
by winds in the upper air. They
found the pollution eventually piles
up in the South Atlantic. "We've
always had some difficulty explaining
all that ozone," Thompson admitted.
10 February 2004. Tango
in the Atmosphere: Ozone and Climate
ChangeNASA
Earth Observatory feature article.
Ozone's impact on climate consists
primarily of changes in temperature.
The more ozone in a given parcel
of air, the more heat it retains.
Ozone generates heat in the stratosphere,
both by absorbing the sun's ultraviolet
radiation and by absorbing upwelling
infrared radiation from the lower
atmosphere (troposphere). Consequently,
decreased ozone in the stratosphere
results in lower temperatures.
28 February 2006. Standards:
Even Approved Amount of Ozone Is Found
Harmful. By NICHOLAS BAKALAR,
NY Times. A
study sponsored by the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
has found that air even at the E.P.A.'s
current acceptable level of ozone
- 80 parts per billion - can bring
on a significantly increased risk
of premature death. ...Ozone, the
major component of smog, ... can cause
lung damage when inhaled. By applying
statistical models to air pollution,
weather and mortality for 98 American
cities over a 14-year period, the
researchers determined that an increase
of 10 parts per billion in ozone concentrations
measured day to day causes a 0.3 percent
increase in early mortality. ...The
study ... is now online at the journal's website.
Michelle L. Bell, the lead author
on the study, said that in a city
the size of New York a 0.3 percent
increase in mortality was equivalent
to an additional 2,000 deaths a year....
