The Hole over Antarctica

In the mid-1980s, a team of British scientists working at McMnrdo Research Station in Antarctica discovered that a significant decrease in the concentration of ozone over Antarctica was occurring. This was referred to as the ozone hole. 

An American research team led by University of Colorado atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon (1956-) went to McMurdo in 1986 and established the link between atmospheric chlorine and the decrease in ozone concentration. The so-called smoking gim evidence of the link was the detection of chlorine monoxide (CIO) in the atmosphere over Antarctica. Since there are no natural sources of CIO in the atmosphere, it could only have been formed by the reaction shown in the first step of Rowland and Molinas proposal. 

Enough countries have agreed to eliminate CFCs from their products that scientists fully expect the ozone layer to recover. Enough CFCs are in the atmosphere already that recovery will take several decades, but ozone levels will recover. This has been an excellent example of the application of good science to a global problem and to the problem s solution. 

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