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Pollution of the Stratosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Harold S. Johnston
Harold S. Johnston
Affiliation:
Professor of Chemistry, University of California, and Inorganic Materials Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, U.S.A.
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Extract

Ozone in the stratosphere is vital to life on Earth. Yet it is chemically unstable and is susceptible to catalytic destruction from a long list of chemical substances, including NOX, HOX, CIOX, and metal oxides. In the stratosphere, these catalysts can be very active in ozone destruction, even when present at only one part of catalyst per 10,000 of ozone.

Pollutants can reach the stratosphere in two ways: (1) by direct injection, as from supersonic transports, military aircraft, rockets, or nuclear bombs, and (2) by indirect injection from the troposphere, which may occur for inert, water-insoluble substances that will eventually work their way up into the stratosphere.

The mass of catalysts sufficient to destroy stratospheric ozone at a significant, world-wide rate is less than the mass of the annual waste products from several industrial operations. In particular, the mass of nitrogen oxides from the exhausts of 500 supersonic transports is far above the threshold for significant catalytic destruction of ozone. This could have profound effects on the working and very maintenance of the biosphere.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1974 , pp. 163 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1974

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