Antartica is uninhabited. Suggest why the ozone layer in the atmosphere above it is becoming damaged?

Answer 1

the north and south poles are weak spots in the earth's electromagnetic field, and have always had a thinner layer of ozone than the rest of the planet. due to human release of CFC's, and the way that the upper atmosphere is constantly circulating from equator to pole and back, many of these CFC's gathered at the poles. this erodes the ozone layer there to an even thinner amount than it naturally would be.

Answer 2

Quite why the south pole has it's ozone depleted has long puzzled me.

The thing is, both poles have depletion in ozone, it's just that only the south pole has people living there to measure it [between 800 and 3000 people depending on the time of year]. The North pole is a floating sheet of ice which won't support permanent habitation so it's the south pole we hear most about.

I should point out that it is Chloroflourocarbons which have caused the damage to the ozone. [CFCs]
CFCs have absoludely sod all to do with the greenhouse effect. They are used in refrigerators and used to be used in aerosols. They have been phased out over the last 20 years but they are likely to persist in the atmosphere for at least 100 years more.

The reason the poles suffer the worst is because hot air tends to move polewards due to pressure changes caused by heat. The rotation of the earth creates the direction of prevailing winds. Hadley cells are a consequence of the speed of the earths rotation, the density of the atmosphere and temperature.

The greenhouse effect is all about CO2 and H20. It has nothing to do with the ozone layer. The ozon layer is effected by CFCs which ahve nothing to do with the greenhouse effect.

Answer 3

Ozone damaging chemicals such as chloroflourocarbons quickly become mixed into the atmosphere all around the world, and thin the ozone layer everywhere.

Sunlight and warmth in the stratosphere help rebuild the ozone layer, and both are present in sufficient amounts at tropical and temperate latitudes to stay ahead of the CFC's.

At polar latitudes, there is not enough heat in the stratosphere, and no sunlight at all during the winter, so the ozone layer disappears there. The ozone hole shrinks during the polar summers, but the rebuilding process is not fast enough to stay ahead of the CFC's.

The north pole also has an ozone hole, but it is not so cold there as the south pole, so the ozone hole is smaller.

Answer 4

Antarctica is inhabited. I've been there twice and there were other people living there on both occasions. Ozone depletion over Antarctica takes place in stratospheric clouds in late winter/early spring. The conditions are right, the chemistry is right and a circumpolar jet stream, the polar night vortex, helps to keep the right conditions over Antarctica.

There is not a lot of cross equatorial flow in the troposphere but there is in the stratosphere so pollutants such as CFCs from the northern hemisphere can reach Antarctica. It is the chlorine in the CFCs that does the damage.

By the way, ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect are entirely different processes with different gases involved.

Answer 5

The ozone layer is being depleated because the green house gasses tend to collect over the poles due to the earth's rotation

Answer 6

Blame it on Bush and the Americans, we are responsible for everything else that is going wrong, we can take that one too.

Answer 7

it is habited...