About the ozone hole and dobson units.....?

Question

I'm a little confused about dobson units. Can you please describe to me what they are and how they're used to measure ozone?

Answer 1

Here is the best info I could find with a short search:

http://ozone.gi.alaska.edu/dobson.htm

Answer 2

Start out with the following website. DU's are used as a "quick and dirty" system to evaluate the ozone layer around the world. I think the average value worldwide has been about 300 DU's or so. Ozone depletion happens more at the poles because the refrigerant gasses like CFC's, which chemically break down ozone, gradually migrate to colder regions, even though they may be mixed in the air. At the poles, the ozone has been measured at less than half the average.

Same thing happens in your house's air conditioner system. During the winter, most of the refrigerant migrates out of your warm house and into the outside compressor unit. During summer, whenever the A/C isn't used, like if you turn it OFF when you're gone on vacation for a week or two, then most of the refrigerant migrates into the evaporator coil inside the house where it may be cooler.

Other sources will include NASA satellite data.

Answer 3

The weather people report on ozone from cars are not ozone but NO2. O3 is very toxic. The ozone layer is very high and most of the gases are far too heavy to get there. The hole on the ozone layer is a natural occurrence ,and perfectly normal. The ozone layer is created where the ionized solar winds collide with the earth's magnetic field. The beta particles are attracted to the north pole and make it negative. The alfa particles are attracted to the south pole and make it positive . This forms a particle stream that blows the hole in the ozone layer and it is so high that man has nothing to do with it.

Answer 4

A dobson unit is the most basic measure used in ozone research. The unit is named after G.M.B. Dobson, one of the first scientists to investigate atmospheric ozone (~1920 - 1960). He designed the 'Dobson Spectrometer' - the standard instrument used to measure ozone from the ground. The Dobson spectrometer measures the intensity of solar UV radiation at four wavelengths, two of which are absorbed by ozone and two of which are not.