Interesting facts about ozone holes

Term ozone hole refers to seasonal shrinkage of stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions.

The freons (CFC compounds) are the main destructive force behind the creation of ozone holes. It has to be said that CFCs were banned in most countries because of their negative impact on depletion of the ozone layer.

Ozone is important for all life on our planet because ozone layer protects us from excessive ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

The 2011 ozone loss at Arctic looks to be reaching a record level. The scientific measurements in the February/March 2011 showed that around half of the ozone that was present above the Arctic has been destroyed in couple of weeks time.

The scientists believe there is a strong link between the climate change and ozone holes but the interactions between the ozone layer and climate change haven't been completely understood yet and are the subject of many ongoing researches.

Despite this year's negative news regarding the ozone holes at Arctic and Antarctica many scientists believe that long-term ozone layer recovery is realistic to expect because of international environmental policy measures (Montreal Protocol) enacted for its protection.

Scientists are still not certain whether ozone depletion is somewhat connected with the decrease of Antarctic ice or not.

Ozone hole above Antarctica typically starts in September and lasts till early December.

Scientists are constantly analyzing ozone hole chemistry in order to be able to make more accurate predictions of polar ozone loss above Antarctica and Arctic.

Some scientists believe that the efforts in healing the ozone hole above Antarctica could actually increase the global warming impact in the Southern hemisphere.

Currently the largest ozone-depleting substance is Nitrous oxide. Scientists believe that this substance will remain the largest contributor to ozone holes throughout the entire 21st century.

Scientists still haven't discovered concrete evidence that would link ozone depletion to higher incidence of skin cancer in human beings.

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Connection between ozone hole and climate change

Today the climate change is considered as the biggest environmental threat but not so long ago big ozone hole over Antarctic was considered the biggest environmental threat. Currently, the ozone hole is steadily closing, and according to scientists at the University of Leeds this could in fact increase the impact of climate change into the southern atmosphere.

Surprisingly it looks like ozone hole actually protected southern hemisphere from much bigger climate change impact. According to British scientists high-speed winds in the area beneath the ozone hole have led to the formation of brighter summertime clouds, which reflect more of the sun's powerful rays, reflecting the sun's heat away from the surface. As the result of this the warming from rising carbon emissions has effectively been canceled out in this region during the summertime.

As the ozone hole is steadily closing these winds are also decreasing in power, and therefore rising CO2 emissions could cause significantly faster warming of the southern hemisphere.

The main ingredient in this newly found connection between climate change and ozone hole are tiny particles known as aerosols. Greenhouses gases responsible for climate change problem absorb infrared radiation from the Earth and release it back into the atmosphere as heat, causing the planet to warm up over certain period of time. Aerosols on the other hand work against this by reflecting heat from the sun back into space, cooling the planet in the process.

As the ozone hole disappears so do aerosols, and southern atmosphere could soon experience much accelerating rate of warming. It will be very interesting to learn more about these aerosols, and whether science could use them as the tool against the climate change.

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