Does climate change have an impact on the stratospheric ozone layer?
Figure 2. Structure of the atmosphere (source: NOAA). The thickness of the polar stratospheric ozone layer depends on the rate of production of ozone in the tropical stratosphere, the movement of ozone from the tropics to the poles, the amount of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, the polar stratospheric cloud cover, and the chemical reactions between the ozone and ozone- depleting substances. Each of these factors might be affected by climate change. [6] Poleward motions in the stratosphere, which increase polar concentrations of ozone, as well as the strength of the polar stratospheric vortices, which decrease ozone via PSC formation, are both expected to increase as temperatures rise in the lower atmosphere (see Figure 2). Yet temperatures in the lower stratosphere are decreasing as a result of increased carbon and other heat-trapping emissions [1]. The reason for this apparent paradox—increasing temperatures at the Earth’s surface and decreasing temperatures in higher parts of the
