Greenhouse effect on hold?

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 261, 1 November 1988, Page 16

Greenhouse effect on hold?

High winds in the stratosphere this year are thought to be the cause of a slowing down of the depletion of the ozone layer. A marked decrease in September compared to

the cyclical depletion of ozone over the Antarctic has been measured by United States scientists. The ozone hole, which is the result of pollution damage, appears over Antarctica each spring but this year looks to be the smallest since 1982, according to the scientists. Last year there was a 50 per cent depletion of the ozone layer i n

a 15 per cent depletion this September according to the NASA researchers. The depletion of the ozone layer will cause the "Greenhouse Effect",

the warming of the Earth's atmosphere, researchers believe. The ozone layer filters out harmful ultra-violet rays from the sun, which would heat the Earth's atmosphere if let through in greater concentrations. The lessening of the

ozone hole is probably due to this years' high winds which would have dispersed the chemical compounds trapped inside the polar vortex before significant chemical destruction of ozone could take place. The unusually high winds in the whole of

the Southern Hemisphere is thought to have also slowed the long-term reduction in ozone levels throughout the hemisphere. Ozone is a colourless gas with a chlorine-like smell, the molecules of which are madc up of three oxygen atoms.