Recently, every spring St. Petersburg scientists studying atmosphere, greeted with alarm. At the end of March 2011 – after especially snowy and cold winters – for the first time over the Arctic was ozone hole detected. Until then, the phenomenon of sharp decline a layer of heavy oxygen (also called ozone) was manifested only over the south pole. Observations of the state of the ozone layer above The Arctic is also underway this spring.
A photo open source © Flickr.com/ Wen Nag (aliasgrace) / cc-by-nc-sa 3.0 Solar radiation screen – Ozone holes as a phenomenon are already quite well studied, although they were discovered only in the mid-1980s in Antarctica. Since ozone deficiency in September – November, when in the Southern Hemisphere spring is fixed every year, which is already beginning to affect the climate and nature of the mainland, – says the head of the laboratory Main Geophysical Observatory. A.I. Voyeykova Igor Karol. – In March-April 2011, the ozone hole first appeared over The Arctic. Moreover, in the southern hemisphere, the hole is located above the pole, and we have captured almost all the northern regions of Russia. Ozone – gas with three oxygen atoms – protects the Earth’s biosphere from hard solar radiation. If there is little in the atmosphere, strength ultraviolet rays will increase many times, which is detrimental will affect a person. Now, while ozone holes appear only above the poles and only for a few weeks, for us it’s not very dangerously. First, at high latitudes, the sun is low over horizon and its radiation is not so intense. Yes, and people in those areas, except for polar scientists, no. Danger arises if holes will expand. Their appearance is explained by global warming. Due to industrial production growth, emissions in the atmosphere of the so-called greenhouse gases in recent decades increased dramatically. They trap heat in the lower atmosphere, without passing it into the upper layers – into the stratosphere (to a height of 20 – 35 km from the Earth), which is cooled by this. And ozone molecules react with chloride and bromide compounds – harmful substances that enter the stratosphere also in the result of human activity, and are destroyed. So formed the ozone hole. She appears above the poles immediately after graduation. winters, when the stratosphere is especially cold. Unpleasant surprise – However, nothing catastrophic is happening yet, – a specialist in atmospheric physics calms a professor Hydrometeorological University Sergey Smyshlyaev. – Moreover, after the signing of the Montreal Protocol in the late 1980s, limiting emissions, in particular freon, concentration in the atmosphere of substances that deplete the ozone layer, according to some reports, decreases. We expect harmful emissions in the coming decades. compounds are so reduced that ozone holes in general cease to arise. Some of our colleagues hoped that the size holes in the southern hemisphere should have been reduced already in these years. … So far, these hopes have not been met. And the appearance of a hole over the Arctic It was an unpleasant surprise for scientists, therefore, control the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere, they now pay special attention. The research plan of the latest polar expeditions “North pole “, which work near the” top of the planet “, on the 84th parallels necessarily include monitoring ozone in atmosphere. Probe no worse than satellite – Expedition “North Pole-40 “, landed in the Arctic in September 2012, will stay on ice floe until the end of summer 2013, – said Sergey Smyshlyaev. – Scientists measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere and stratosphere with using probes, they are usually launched twice a day. Such “grandfather” research method is good because it is very accurate and gives results anytime. Ozone concentration is measured and with satellites, the Americans have such a program at NASA. But with satellites measurements are possible only when the sun is shining. However ozone holes are formed precisely in the spring, when the polar night ends. Graduate students of our university this spring will be track ozone information from NASA satellites, it open and it can be found on the Internet. Pessimism in most scientists have no views on the ozone phenomenon: most importantly, their opinion, to continue to study this natural phenomenon and to track trends. There is also a philosophical point of view on the problem. – Mammoths on Earth died out in due time, but life goes on. Not it’s worth overestimating the significance of a single species for the planet, even if it’s a person, – once said the vice president of the Russian Geographical Society Kirill Chistyakov. – In the history of the Earth were periods when 90 percent of the species that inhabit it, died out due to natural changes … However, nothing like this the near term on our planet is not expected. Oleg Rogozin
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