Stratospheric ozone depletion: A review of concepts and history

Stratospheric ozone depletion through catalytic chemistry involving man-mad e chlorofluorocarbons is an area of focus in the study of geophysics and on e of the global environmental issues of the twentieth century. This review presents a brief history of the science of ozone depletion and describes a conceptual framework to explain the key processes involved, with a focus on chemistry. Observations that may be considered as evidence (fingerprints) of ozone depletion due to chlorofluorocarbons are explored, and the related gas phase and surface chemistry is described. Observations of ozone and of chlorine-related trace gases near 40 km provide evidence that gas phase ch emistry has indeed currently depleted about 10% of the stratospheric ozone there as predicted, and the vertical and horizontal structures of this depl etion are fingerprints for that process. More striking changes are observed each austral spring in Antarctica, where about half of the total ozone col umn is depleted each September, forming the Antarctic ozone hole. Measureme nts of large amounts of ClO, a key ozone destruction catalyst, are among th e finger- prints showing that human releases of chlorofluorocarbons are the primary cause of this change. Enhanced ozone depletion in the Antarctic an d Arctic regions is linked to heterogeneous chlorine chemistry that occurs on the surfaces of polar stratospheric clouds at cold temperatures. Observa tions also show that some of the same heterogeneous chemistry occurs on the surfaces of particles present at midlatitudes as well, and the abundances of these particles are enhanced following explosive volcanic eruptions. The partitioning of chlorine between active forms that destroy ozone and inert reservoirs that sequester it is a central part of the framework for our un derstanding of the 40-km ozone decline, the Antarctic ozone hole, the recen t Arctic ozone losses in particularly cold years, and the observation of re cord midlatitude ozone depletion after the major eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the early 1990s. As human use of chlorofluorocarbons continues to decre ase, these changes throughout the ozone layer are expected to gradually rev erse during the twenty-first century.