The ozonosphere, as it is also called the ozone layer, is a layer within the stratosphere, at a height of 10 to 50 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, with an increased presence of ozone.
The ozone layer was discovered by French physicists Charles Fabri and Henri Bison in 1913.
Its properties were further investigated by the British meteorologist Gordon Dobson, after whom the unit for the amount of atmospheric ozone is named.
The highest concentration of this colorless-pale bluish gas is at an altitude of 20 to 25 kilometers, and its maximum content is in spring, minimum in autumn.
It also occurs in the lower layers of the atmosphere, and at the surface a higher concentration can be toxic to humans and plants.
“Ozone is a gas that absorbs the sun’s UV radiation, and that is why these values on the surface of the Earth are significantly lower than in a situation where there is no ozone layer,” explains Professor Vladimir Đurđević for the BBC.
Ultraviolet radiation can cause harmful effects on humans and other living organisms.
One of them is skin cancer, i.e. melanoma, which affects 132,000 people annually, while non-melanoma cancer occurs in between two and three million.
The World Health Organization estimates that a 10 percent reduction in ozone levels leads to an additional 300,000 non-melanoma skin cancers and 4,500 melanoma cases.
During the 1970s, scientists noticed that the ozone layer was damaged, and in the middle of the next decade, ozone holes were also discovered, places where the concentration of ozone, the gas that makes up the layer, is significantly reduced, above the poles, primarily the southern one, around the ice continent of Antarctica.
The cause is human activity and the use of chlorofluorocarbons, most often freon, chemical compounds from cooling systems, such as air conditioners and refrigerators, and deodorants.
With the abolition of their production and use by the international Montreal Protocol of 1987, the ozone layer began to recover.
The contract was signed on September 16, and this date has been marked as the World Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer for three decades.
World Ozone Day 2024 was celebrated in New Delhi with the theme: “Montreal Protocol – Advancing Climate Action.” Promoting a sustainable future and protecting planet Earth.
E2 portal (BBC)
Source: www.e2.rs
