The Ozone Layer is on a Recovery Course

The ozone layer surrounds our planet and acts as a protective layer to protect us from UV radiation, UV-C and UV-B whose wavelength is associated with sunburn and skin cancer.

The positive results NASA and NOAA have discovered today are due to the actions that organizations took, in regard to banning substances that destroyed the ozone layer. Refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam blowing agents, also known as ozone-depleting substances (ODS), were the cause of a “hole being torn open” in the ozone layer, in the atmosphere.

When scientists discovered there was a hole in the ozone layer they took action immediately. They restricted ODS back in 1989 and now we are finally seeing the effects of those actions.

Planetary weather patterns have shown scientists today that the ozone layer is the smallest it’s been since 1982. The recovery is a slow process and it could take 40 years for a full recovery of the layer, but the main point here is that it is recovering.

Paul Newman, the chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said:

It’s important to recognize that what we’re seeing this year is due to warmer stratospheric temperatures. It’s not a sign that atmospheric ozone is suddenly on a fast track to recovery.

The actual reason behind the lesser depletion level this year was due to warming in the upper atmosphere. Temperatures rose 16 degrees Celsius than average which weakened Antarctica’s polar vortex, which in turn enabled warm air to sink into the atmosphere and disrupted the formation of the stratospheric clouds, which caused the ozone layer to be damaged.

If this carries on, then we are to expect the ozone hole to be the size it was back in the early ’80s, which is a massive improvement.

Although the ozone hole has no direct connection with climate change, human activities in green energy and other improvements have shaped the globe as we know it. The reduction of carbon in the atmosphere and promotion of green energy via renewable sources has impacted the planet in a positive way. The more we do as humans the faster we will see the ozone layer back to where it was and the safety of mankind and planet Earth.