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80% Loss of Arctic Ozone Caused by...

... months of stratospheric cold weather

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 2, 2011 4:59 PM CDT

(Newser) – Amid our heated political debate on climate change, it's cold air that apparently depleted the Arctic's ozone layer, the BBC reports. An article in the journal Nature says an 80% reduction of Arctic ozone, noted earlier this year, was caused by cold air hanging around the stratosphere for months longer than usual. But no one knows why it hung around so long. "That will be studied for years to come," one scientist says.

Even though it seems counter-intuitive, climate change may be the cause, the New Scientist reports. "Climate change warms the surface but cools the stratosphere," one scientist explains. A 2007 climate change panel concluded that "there has been global stratospheric cooling since 1979," but the exact cause hasn't been proven. But scientists have documented the ozone-destroying effect of chlorofluorocarbons in the Antarctic, which led to their ban in products like refrigerators and fire extinguishers.

An extended period of cold has depleted the Arctic's ozone layer, scientists say. (AP Photo/John McConnico, File)

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80% Loss of Arctic Ozone Caused by...

... months of stratospheric cold weather

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climate change • global warming • Antarctica • ozone layer • chlorofluorocarbons

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More Newser Stories

Sea Rise Estimates Double

Antarctic melt will threaten major world cities

Burning Coal Slowed Climate Change: Study

Sulfur pollution masked effect of CO2 emissions

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Ice sheets could send sea level up 6 inches by 2050

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Antarctica jet filling in for dying satellite

Congressmen Studied Climate Change—on $500K Trip

Lawmakers snorkeled, visited South Pole

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