Ozone Depletion

Ozone Depletion

Is out planet in danger? Are we losing our protection from the sun’s UV rays? These are a couple of frequently asked questions when people talk about ozone depletion.
The Earth’s atmosphere is composed of several layers. We live in the troposphere, where most of the weather occurs; like rain and snow. It extends from the Earth’s surface up to about ten kilometers in altitude. The stratosphere is above the troposphere. It extends from around ten to fifty kilometers in altitude. Most airline traffic occurs in the lower stratosphere. There is a little area between the troposphere and the stratosphere. This narrow region is called the tropopause.
Ozone is a molecule that has three oxygen atoms and occurs naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. Out of each ten million air molecules, only three million ozone molecules are present. However, even the small amount of ozone plays a key role in the Earth’s atmosphere. Ozone forms a layer ...