Ozone Layer Depletion

Ozone Layer Depletion

Joseph Farman, of the British Meteorological Survey, and colleagues reported in the
scientific journal Nature that concentrations of stratospheric ozone above Antarctica had
plunged more than 40 percent from 1960s baseline levels during October, the first month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, between 1977 and 1984. It meant that for several months of the year a hole forms in the ozone layer, which protects animals and plants from
ultraviolet solar radiation. Suddenly it seemed that the chemical processes known to deplete ozone high in the earth’s atmosphere were working faster and more efficiently than predicted.