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Ozone hole and polar vortex?

Describe the environmental conditions and series of events that result in the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole in october of every year.

My teacher said something about polar vortex and warm wind trapping chemicals and photosynthesis.

2 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The overall cause of ozone depletion is the presence of chlorine-containing source gases, like CFCs. In the presence of UV light, these gases dissociate, releasing chlorine atoms, which then go on to catalyze ozone destruction. This mechanism takes place everywhere, where there is sunlight. The overal effect is a gradual depletion (a few percent per year) of the ozone layer.

    The Cl-catalyzed reactions are enhanced at the poles, because of the extreme cold, enhanced by the polar vortex, a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near the Earth's poles. The vortex is most powerful in the hemisphere's winter, when the temperature gradient is steepest, and diminishes or can disappear in the summer. The Antarctic polar vortex is more pronounced and persistent than the Arctic one; this is because the distribution of land masses at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere

    In winter the extreme cold favorizes the creation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs).

    These PSCs are clouds of nitric acid and ice. The cloud particles act both as reaction surface for the depletion reaction and as catalyzer via the formation of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and chlorine nitrate (ClONO2). When spring and the Sun arrives, free Cl and ClO radicals are formed, which attack the ozone. The PSCs therefore act to concentrate the presence of radicals in the spring above the poles.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    no vegetation use UV gentle they use the frequencies closest to blue gentle. UV gentle is a sort of ionising radiation and whilst it hits cells it ought to reason harm to its DNA and could maximum in all threat kill it. it incredibly is why you get solar burnt and pores and skin maximum cancers in case you reside interior the solar for too long. the ozone hollow is located over Antarctica, it fairly is keped there via sturdy winds. ozone is formed whilst UV gentle strikes oxygen molecules. ozone is fairly risky so it supplies you up one oxygen atom and return back to oxygen gas. simply by this ozone is continuously being destroyed and created the concern is CFCs improve the fee at which ozone is broken up and so as that they shrink the quantity of ozone preserving us from UV gentle. no the hollow interior the ozone layer wont enable warmth to radiate back into area. despite if ozone is a greenhouse gas it fairly is in basic terms modern in very small quantities, any human emissions of CFCs will additionally counteract any loss of greenhouse gasses. the wavelengths ozone absorbs skill that it will make little or no distinction besides.

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