No, I know the chemistry but why does it affect the ozone over the poles and not over the continents?

Answer 1

Below is what I answered a similar question. _ Basically the poles have no uv in winter so no uv replenishment. Comes the sun comes the ozone so penguins dont need sunglasses. ;)

The popular assumption is that they uniformly diffuse throughout the atmosphere. It is also assumed there is no reservoir than the atmosphere. We know this is not true because oceanographers measure chlorofluorocarbon content of water samples taken from deep currents in order to know when this water was at the surface.
Also they are heavy molecules. SInce the ozone problem is chlorine supposedly released from freon by uv light one might suspect lighter forms of chlorine might be more responsible at higher altitudes. A reasonable person might suspect HCl - the foundation of hydrochloric acid - as it is emitted by volcanoes and Mount Erebus, a volcano, is close to the ozone monitoring station in Antarctica. Also the hole appears in the winter when there is no uv to create fresh ozone either and it would be very depleted by spring when the sun returns. Antarctica is essentially isolated from global air in the winter because the difference in temperature between the water and the land becomes quite large. The cold offshore wind encounters the sea and as it warms establishes a huge energetic rotor essentially isolating the Antarctic air mass. Mt Erebus continues to pump HCl into this air all winter while isolated.
Perhaps freons culpability is political science especially when one realizes Earth Day was funded by the owners of the DuPont corporation shortly after the patents of freon expired. Then again maybe just a coincidence. Draw your own conclusion.;)
An interesting science fair project would be a uv monitoring station. Tell us what you measure after a shuttle launch - assuming you dont live on the US west coast.

Answer 2

In order for rapid ozone destruction to happen, clouds (known as PSCs, Stratospheric Clouds, Mother of Pearl, or Nacreous Clouds) have to form in the ozone layer.

Without the clouds, there is little or no ozone destruction. Only during the Antarctic winter does the atmosphere get cold enough for these clouds to form widely through the centre of the ozone layer.

Elsewhere the atmosphere is just too warm and no clouds form.

The northern and southern hemispheres have different 'weather' in the ozone layer, and the net result is that the temperature of the Arctic ozone layer during winter is normally some ten degrees warmer than that of the Antarctic. This means that such clouds are rare, but sometimes the 'weather' is colder than normal and they do form. Under these circumstances significant ozone depletion can take place over the Arctic, but it is usually for a much shorter period of time and covers a smaller area than in the Antarctic.

Answer 3

To believe that CFC's eat the hole in the ozone is false. U are giving the CFC's the intelligence that they gather to gather and at the exact time every year they race to the N.pole and eat a hole in the ozone layer,and at a different they go to the s.Pole and eat a hole there .Wrong
What happens is the solar wind is ionized and will be attracted to the poles. The bata particle is attracted to the north pole causing a negative charge, and the alpha particle is attracted to the south pole and is positive charged. The high atmosphere is charged with this potential. the top layer is bombarded with alpha particles and transmutates Nitrogen to O2. this is what forms the Van Allen Belt that protects us from radiation..

Answer 4

Ozone is created by the Sun. Since there is very little sun over the poles, I believe this may be why there are occassionally "holes" in the ozone above the poles but I have never heard a climate scientist confirm this. The holes are just areas where there is very little ozone.

Answer 5

It has to do with how heavy the CFC molecule is relative to most other parts of the atmosphere. The heavy molecules get pulled toward the poles with the spin of the earth.

Answer 6

Where the lighter gages go?