Icy Peaks Power Perfect Wave For Cloud-surfing Ozone Eaters

摘要

"Mountain waves" in the atmosphere above Antarctica create rare clouds that are helping destroy the ozone layer.rnOver the last two decades, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released by human activity have opened a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. Key chemical reactions that lead to ozone depletion happen on the surface of rare polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), which form high up in the atmosphere. Here, sunlight breaks down the CFCs into products that react to produce chlorine, which in turn decomposes ozone. "The question was: how are thesernclouds generated?" says Lars Hoffmann of the Juelich Research Centre in Germany.