Polar winds blamed for Arctic ozone loss
Ozone levels over the Earth's far north declined as much as 60 percent in February and March last year when polar winds trapped nitrogen pollutants, researchers reported. The sun contributed to the problem, sending out a storm of particles that bombarded the Earth and helped generate some of the ozone-destroying chemicals, according to the report in Geophysical Research Letters. "This decline [over the north] was completely unexpected," according to a statement by Cora Randall of the University of Colorado at Boulder who led the research team. Ozone, a form of oxygen, helps protect the Earth from some of the damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
(Hat tip to Virginia)
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