Ozone, The Hole is back!

Today's News.. The Ozone hole is larger in 2025! Sunday Nov. 30th. 2025.

I remember in Chemistry class being taught that Ozone (O3) was formed in the upper atmosphere by Cosmic Rays1  or Alpha Particles from the Sun  bumping into Oxygen molecules (O2) according to  the  equation 3O2⇋ 2O3,  a reversible reaction.   

Reactive and unstable, Ozone decays pretty soon, back into O2 , or an oxide of Nitrogen (NOx), there being  plenty of Nitrogen around up there. 

So imagine my surprise when I learned that in America Ozone is believed to come from automobile exhaust pipes in places like Los Angeles.

When, in the ‘80s a sharp eyed New York Times reporter first spotted the ‘Ozone Hole’ lurking over Patagonia in late October or November I was curious.     

When, every year thereafter, the ‘Ozone Hole’ re- appeared at the same time and  place as reported in the NYT, I became suspicious.  

Now it was common knowledge among my classmates that our schoolmasters were Neanderthals, nevertheless to avoid being caned we paid attention,  A.D.D. having not yet been invented.       

We also knew (from paying attention)  that the Antarctic, a continent, was 30o C or more colder than the Arctic which is an ocean.

With no sunlight for six months there are no ‘Cosmic Rays’ to generate fresh ozone over Antarctica.

In addition  the cold dense polar air mass descends over the South Pole and heads North in every direction creating the hurricane force katabatic winds. 

The Earth’s rotation or Coriolis effect, take your pick, gives the Northbound wind an Easterly kick and voila! the South Polar vortex is born, giving rise to the roaring forties, or screaming fifties depending how far south you go.

All of this sucks more of the remaining ozone out of the upper atmosphere.

When, in September,  spring in the antipodes,  the Sun pops its smiling face over the horizon to warm things up again,  relatively speaking, the polar vortex weakens and the ozone depleted winter air mass spirals Northward to show up in Patagonia on cue for the annual October/November Ozone hole spotting season!

To panic about the disappearing "ozone hole", our shield against cancer causing UV radiation seems strange... given that UV radiation by creating the Ozone layer is absorbed in the process. 

Put another way, nobody gets sunburned at night.   Eh?

 

The energy needed to create the highly reactive O3  Ozone molecule from the standard O2. Oxygen molecule reduces the high energy UV to a lower energy state with a corresponding longer and less harmful wavelength  according to the formula E= H/λ, where E is ‘Energy’,  λ (lamda) is wavelength,  and H is Plank’s constant: (6.626x10 -34 ).

So, in conclusion, what’s the big deal with the Ozone hole?

It’s just a consequence of a long dark antipodean winter. 

Harvey H. Homitz,

Ozone Hole spotter in extremis.

(first published in 2010.)