Prather paper prompts new ozone discussion

A recent paper by AirUCI faculty Mike Prather has prompted new discussion of the earth's recovery from the "ozone hole".  The discovery of the ozone problem by Sherry Rowland, (honorary AirUCI team member) and Mario Molina in the 1970s won them the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and motivated an international effort to reduce ozone use in everyday products. There has been slow but steady recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, but about 10% remains in the troposphere.  Mike's findings indicate that "what happens in the troposphere doesn't stay in the troposphere."  Some of these molecules travel up into the stratosphere when the two atmospheric layers exchange air.  This upward migration of ozone may make it difficult to assess the recovery rate of the depleted stratospheric ozone layer accurately and may also affect how researchers interpret the results of a worldwide reduction in halocarbon use.  Read the article