Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA)
- Global Atmospheric Pollution (GAP) Forum
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Selected Units Used in Atmospheric Pollution Science
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER 1 AIR POLLUTION HISTORY
- CHAPTER 2 AIR POLLUTION IN URBAN AREAS
- CHAPTER 3 LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS AND TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION
- CHAPTER 4 GLOBAL AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
- CHAPTER 5 OZONE DEPLETION
- CHAPTER 6 ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF AIR POLLUTION
- CHAPTER 7 FUTURE TRENDS IN AIR POLLUTION
- References
- List of Useful Reading Material
- Index
CHAPTER 5 - OZONE DEPLETION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA)
- Global Atmospheric Pollution (GAP) Forum
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Selected Units Used in Atmospheric Pollution Science
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER 1 AIR POLLUTION HISTORY
- CHAPTER 2 AIR POLLUTION IN URBAN AREAS
- CHAPTER 3 LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS AND TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION
- CHAPTER 4 GLOBAL AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
- CHAPTER 5 OZONE DEPLETION
- CHAPTER 6 ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF AIR POLLUTION
- CHAPTER 7 FUTURE TRENDS IN AIR POLLUTION
- References
- List of Useful Reading Material
- Index
Summary
Ozone is the triatomic form of oxygen. It is a colourless gas that acts as a highly reactive oxidising agent. It is the primary oxidising irritant in photochemical smog. On the other hand, ozone is used to deodorise air, purify water and treat industrial wastes. Ozone is a strong absorber of ultraviolet radiation. Ozone can be both good and bad: bad to breathe near the surface in the troposphere, but good to shield from ultraviolet (uv) radiation in the stratosphere.
One of the most important properties of ozone is its ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation (discovered by Hartley 1880). The earth is surrounded by a thin layer of ozone that is sufficient to screen us from the ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would otherwise reach the surface, where it would be capable of breaking bonds in biologically important compounds such as DNA (e.g. Björn 2007). The thin layer of ozone in the stratosphere is only about one part in a million of the total molecules that make up our atmosphere. If the entire layer were reduced to surface pressure, it would be only 3 millimetres in thickness. Figure 5.1shows how the air temperature and ozone concentration changes within the troposphere and the stratosphere.
Temperature decreases throughout the region called the troposphere. Temperature is then constant or slowly increasing, forming a permanent inversion layer called the stratosphere.
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- Information
- World Atlas of Atmospheric Pollution , pp. 67 - 76Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2008