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Isolating the Antarctic Ozone Hole and Wind
Name: Amalina
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
What is the wind pattern over Antarctica that isolates the
ozone hole?
Replies:
Amalina,
A cyclonic vortex (low pressure) occurs over the Antarctic
in the mid-Troposphere to lower Stratosphere layer of the
atmosphere. This is not a surface weather pattern. The
cyclonic circulation results from the strong temperature
gradient between the almost circular and very cold
Antarctic continent and warmer, primarily oceanic, areas
north of Antarctica.
No sunlight for nearly three months during winter allows
Antarctica, and the atmosphere above it, to cool dramatically,
with air sinking over Antarctica. You can see a good explanation
of the meteorology at
www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/part3.html
Towards the end of winter, when the Sun comes up and
illuminates the "ozone layer", photochemical destruction of
ozone occurs, from a reaction of nitric acid, bromine, and
CFCs, on stratospheric clouds to release chlorine atoms.
David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
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Update: June 2012
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