'Healing' detected in Antarctic ozone hole

[Flopper]

Finally all the efforts over the last 30 years to eliminate and recycle products containing CFLs is having an effect. A study covering the last 15 years shows the size of the hole in the ozone layer over the antarctic has been reduced by 50%, an area about the size of India. Good news for increasing the size of antarctic ice pack, but what about global warming. Researchers say a lot more study is needed. What do you think? BTW, I'm not a climate scientist so please keep in layman terms.

'Healing' detected in Antarctic ozone hole - BBC News

 

[Old Rocks]

Don't know off the top of my head. Just had a hammer down 10 hr day repairing equipment in a steel mill, and took a shower to wash the grease off, and then spent a couple of hours picking blackberries.

Interesting question, and between 'Honey does' tomorrow, I will see what I can find.

 

[Flopper]

I seems strange to me that this is first time we have heard of this. After all this data has been building for 15 years.

 

[Crick]

There's been no shortage of studies and data. I suppose it just doesn't make the 10 o'clock news much any more.

This is a good thing for ending global warming.

The third line down is forcing (warming) from UV getting through from loss of ozone due to halocarbons (freon).

 

[Billy_Bob]

LOL... another false correlation... that ignores what is required to create Ozone.... Nice try... but no cigar..

 

[Crick]

Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions.[1] The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric phenomena, there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events.

The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of mid-latitude thinning but the most important process in both iscatalytic destruction of ozone by atomic halogens.[2] The main source of these halogen atoms in the stratosphere isphotodissociation of man-made halocarbon refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents(chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), HCFCs, freons, halons). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by winds after being emitted at the surface.[3] Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halocarbons increased.

CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Since the ozone layer prevents most harmful UVB wavelengths (280–315 nm) of ultraviolet light (UV light) from passing through the Earth's atmosphere, observed and projected decreases in ozone generated worldwide concern, leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol that bans the production of CFCs, halons, and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride andtrichloroethane. It is suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in sunburn, skin cancer,cataracts, damage to plants, and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean's photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion.

Wikipedia
References

1. "Twenty Questions and Answers About the Ozone Layer". Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2010 (PDF). World Meteorological Organization. 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
2. "Part III. The Science of the Ozone Hole". Retrieved March 5, 2007.
3. Andino, Jean M. (October 21, 1999). "Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are heavier than air, so how do scientists suppose that these chemicals reach the altitude of the ozone layer to adversely affect it?". Scientific American.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - purt soon dey gonna be growin' vegetables atta South Pole...

Climate Change Fueling Rapid Greening of Antarctic Peninsula
May 19, 2017 - One of the coldest areas in the world is getting greener, and researchers say it’s because of global warming.

Researchers from the University of Exeter in England who first studied the increase of moss and microbes in the Antarctic Peninsula in 2013, now say the greening of the region is widespread. "This gives us a much clearer idea of the scale over which these changes are occurring," says lead author Matthew Amesbury of the University of Exeter. "Previously, we had only identified such a response in a single location at the far south of the Antarctic Peninsula, but now we know that moss banks are responding to recent climate change across the whole of the Peninsula."

Researchers say the Antarctic Peninsula is rapidly greening due to climate change.​

The peninsula, researchers say, is one of the more rapidly warming area in the world, adding that temperatures have risen by about a half-degree Celsius each decade since the 1950s. For their study, researchers looked at five more core samples from three areas of moss banks over 150 years old. The new samples included three Antarctic Islands off the peninsula. The cores, researchers say, showed “increased biological activity” over the past 50 years as the peninsula warmed. Researchers say their findings show “fundamental and widespread change,” and that the change was “striking.”

The changes are likely to continue.

"Temperature increases over roughly the past half-century on the Antarctic Peninsula have had a dramatic effect on moss banks growing in the region, with rapid increases in growth rates and microbial activity," says Dan Charman, who led the research. "If this continues, and with increasing amounts of ice-free land from continued glacier retreat, the Antarctic Peninsula will be a much greener place in the future." The next step for researchers is to look back even further in history to see how climate change affected the region before humans made an impact. The findings appeared in Current Biology on May 18.

Climate Change Fueling Rapid Greening of Antarctic Peninsula

 

[frigidweirdo]

Finally all the efforts over the last 30 years to eliminate and recycle products containing CFLs is having an effect. A study covering the last 15 years shows the size of the hole in the ozone layer over the antarctic has been reduced by 50%, an area about the size of India. Good news for increasing the size of antarctic ice pack, but what about global warming. Researchers say a lot more study is needed. What do you think? BTW, I'm not a climate scientist so please keep in layman terms.

'Healing' detected in Antarctic ozone hole - BBC News

Clearly it was just fake news, there is no ozone, and there is no hole in the non-ozone that doesn't exist and never has. It's God that protects the Earth from solar rays from the death star, not the ozone, so it's all fake news.

 

[waltky]

CFC11 on the rise...

Emissions of Banned Ozone-Eating Chemical Are Rising
May 16, 2018 - Something strange is happening with a now-banned chemical that eats away at Earth's protective ozone layer: Scientists say there's more of it — not less — going into the atmosphere and they don't know where it is coming from.

When a hole in the ozone formed over Antarctica, countries around the world in 1987 agreed to phase out several types of ozone-depleting chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Production was banned, emissions fell and the hole slowly shrank.

But starting in 2013, emissions of the second most common kind started rising, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature . The chemical, called CFC11, was used for making foam, degreasing stains and for refrigeration. "It's the most surprising and unexpected observation I've made in my 27 years" of measurements, said study lead author Stephen Montzka, a research chemist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Emissions today are about the same as it was nearly 20 years ago," he said.

This image provided by NOAA shows the ozone hole. (NOAA)​

Countries have reported close to zero emissions of the chemical since 2006 but the study found about 14,300 tons (13,000 metric tons) a year has been released since 2013. Some seeps out of foam and buildings and machines, but scientists say what they're seeing is much more than that. Measurements from a dozen monitors around the world suggest the emissions are coming from somewhere around China, Mongolia and the Koreas, according to the study. The chemical can be a byproduct in other chemical manufacturing, but it is supposed to be captured and recycled. Either someone's making the banned compound or it's sloppy byproducts that haven't been reported as required, Montzka said.

An outside expert, Ross Salawitch, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland, is less diplomatic. He calls it "rogue production," adding that if it continues "the recovery of the ozone layer would be threatened." High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, crop damage and other problems. Nature removes 2 percent of the CFC11 out of the air each year, so concentrations of the chemical in the atmosphere are still falling, but at a slower rate because of the new emissions, Montzka said. The chemical stays in the air for about 50 years.

Emissions of Banned Ozone-Eating Chemical Are Rising

See also:


Likely cheating on ozone treaty found
Fri, May 18, 2018 - CONTRAVENTION: NOAA chemist Stephen Montzka said either the banned chemical is being made or its byproducts are not being reported as required by a 1987 treaty

The decline in the atmosphere of an ozone-depleting chemical banned by the Montreal Protocol has recently slowed by half, suggesting a serious contravention of the 196-nation treaty, researchers said on Wednesday. Measurements at remote sites — including the US government-run Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii — of the chemical, known as CFC-11, point to somewhere around China, Mongolia and the Koreas as the source of renewed production. “We show that the rate of decline of atmospheric CFC-11 was constant from 2002 to 2012, and then slowed by about 50 percent after 2012,” an international team of scientists concluded in a study published in the journal Nature. “This evidence strongly suggests increased CFC-11 emissions from eastern Asia after 2012.”

The chemical can be a byproduct in other chemical manufacturing, but it is supposed to be captured and recycled. Either someone’s making the banned compound or it is sloppy byproducts that have not been reported as required, said Stephen Montzka, the study’s lead author and a research chemist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (NOAA) The ozone layer in the stratosphere, 10km to 40km above Earth’s surface, protects life on the planet from deadly ultraviolet radiation. The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned industrial aerosols such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were chemically dissolving ozone, especially above Antarctica.

At its most depleted, around the turn of the 21st century, the ozone layer had declined by about 5 percent. Today, the “hole in the ozone” over the South Pole is showing clear signs of recovery. “The ozone layer remains on track to recovery by mid-century,” the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a statement, reacting to the findings, adding that “continued increase in global CFC-11 emissions will put that progress at risk.” The slowdown in reduction of CFC-11 also has implications for the fight against climate change. “Perhaps even more serious is the role of CFCs as long-lived greenhouse gases,” said Joanna Haigh, a professor at Imperial College London, in commenting on the study.

Two decades ago, CFCs — more potent by far as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide or methane — accounted for about 10 percent of human-induced global warming. Widely used in 1970s and 1980s as propellant in aerosol sprays, as well as in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, CFCs do not exist in nature. “This is the first time that emissions of one of the three most abundant, long-lived CFCs have increased for a sustained period since production controls took effect in the 1980s,” the study concluded. CFC-11 still contributes about a quarter of all chlorine reaching the stratosphere.

The less rapid decline of CFC-11 could prevent ozone from returning to normal levels, or at least as quickly as hoped, researchers said. “A timely recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer depends on a sustained decline of CFC-11 concentrations,” they wrote. Other scientists not involved in the study signaled its importance. “This is atmospheric detective work at its finest,” said Piers Forester, head of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. “The authors pinpoint a new source of CFC-11 to East Asia, breaking Montreal Protocol rules.”

Likely cheating on ozone treaty found - Taipei Times

 

[skookerasbil]

As with all this climate stuff....nobody knows shit about shit.

Do we need the famous sk00ks boobs analogy for a clarification on the level of conjecture here?

 

[skookerasbil]

Four questions on climate change

 

[Sunsettommy]

Ozone "holes" have been known since the 1950's long before CFC's were a factor.

 

[Crick]

Chlorofluorocarbons were invented in 1928. The mechanism by which CFCs deplete ozone was discovered in 1974. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987.