Since the Antarctic ozone hole was detected in 1985, depletion of the ozone layer—the “big umbrella” that protects all life on Earth—has raised considerable concern.
Since the Antarctic ozone hole was detected in 1985, depletion of the ozone layer—the “big umbrella” that protects all life on Earth—has raised considerable concern. The efforts of international communities led to the success of the “Montreal Protocol on Substances that Destroy the Ozone Layer”, signed in 1987, which banned global production and usage of chlorofluorocarbons, the leading cause of the depleted ozone. Since then, ozone depleting substances (ODSs) in the stratosphere have gradually been erased and further ozone destruction avoided. The ozone layer has been gradually recovering from the bottom up, and scientists estimate it will reach the level of the 1980s by the middle of this century.
"However, strong volcanic eruptions, especially when a super volcano erupts, will have a strong impact on ozone, and might interrupt the ozone recovery processes," says Associate Professor WEI Ke from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. WEI is the corresponding author of a paper recently published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences .
To estimate the effect of a possible super volcano on the recovering ozone layer, Wei’s team worked with Russian scientists and used a transport model and a chemistry-climate model to simulate the impact of super volcanic eruptions on the stratospheric ozone during different ozone recovery periods.
Read more at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Photo: Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in June 1991. CREDIT: Global Volcanism Program.
