Ozone layer, also called ozonosphere, region of the upper atmosphere, between roughly 15 and 35 km (9 and 22 miles) above Earth’s surface, containing relatively high concentrations of ozone molecules (O3). Approximately 90 percent of the atmosphere’s ozone occurs in the stratosphere, the region extending from 10–18 km (6–11 miles) to approximately 50 km (about 30 miles) above Earth’s surface. The ozone layer effectively blocks almost all solar radiation of wavelengths less than 290 nanometres from reaching Earth’s surface, including certain types of ultraviolet (UV) and other forms of radiation that could injure or kill most living things.
Location In Earth’s Atmosphere
In the midlatitudes the concentrations of ozone occur at altitudes from 20 to 25 km (about 12 to 16 miles). Peak concentrations are found at altitudes from 26 to 28 km (about 16 to 17 miles) in the tropics and from about 12 to 20 km (about 7 to 12 miles) toward the poles. The lower height of the peak-concentration region in the high latitudes largely results from poleward and downward atmospheric transport processes that occur in the middle and high latitudes and the reduced height of the tropopause (the transition region between the troposphere and stratosphere).
Most of the remaining ozone occurs in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere that extends from Earth’s surface up to the stratosphere. It is one of the primary ingredients in photochemical smog, a phenomenon that plagues many urban and suburban areas around the world, especially during the summer months.
Ozone Creation And Destruction
The production of ozone in the stratosphere results primarily from the breaking of the chemical bonds within oxygen molecules (O2) by high-energy solar photons. This process, called photodissociation, results in the release of single oxygen atoms, which later join with intact oxygen molecules to form ozone. Rising atmospheric oxygen concentrations some two billion years ago allowed ozone to build up in Earth’s atmosphere, a process that gradually led to the formation of the stratosphere. Scientists believe that the formation of the ozone layer played an important role in the development of life on Earth by screening out lethal levels of UVB radiation (ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths between 315 and 280 nanometres) and thus facilitating the migration of life-forms from the oceans to land.
The amount of ozone in the stratosphere varies naturally throughout the year as a result of chemical processes that create and destroy ozone molecules and as a result of winds and other transport processes that move ozone molecules around the planet. Over the course of several decades, however, human activities substantially altered the ozone layer. Ozone depletion, the global decrease in stratospheric ozone observed since the 1970s, is most pronounced in polar regions, and it is well correlated with the increase of chlorine and bromine in the stratosphere. Those chemicals, once freed by UV radiation from the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other halocarbons (carbon-halogen compounds) that contain them, destroy ozone by stripping away single oxygen atoms from ozone molecules. Depletion is so extensive that so-called ozone holes (regions of severely reduced ozone coverage) form over the poles during the onset of their respective spring seasons. The largest such hole—which has spanned more than 20.7 million square km (8 million square miles) on a consistent basis since 1992—appears annually over Antarctica between September and November.
As the amount of stratospheric ozone declines, more UV radiation reaches Earth’s surface, and scientists worry that such increases could have significant effects on ecosystems and human health. The concern over exposure to biologically harmful levels of UV radiation has been the main driver of the creation of international treaties such as the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer and its amendments, designed to protect Earth’s ozone layer. Compliance with international treaties that phased out the production and delivery of many ozone-depleting chemicals, combined with upper stratospheric cooling due to increased carbon dioxide, is thought to have contributed to the shrinking of the ozone holes over the poles and to slightly higher stratospheric ozone levels overall. Continued reductions in chlorine loading are expected to result in smaller ozone holes above Antarctica after 2040.
