Write a note on stratospheric ozone formation and depletion.
Answers
Ozone is both beneficial and harmful to us. Near the ground, ozone forming as a result of chemical reactions involving traffic pollution and sunlight may cause a number of respiratory problems, particularly for young children. However, high up in the atmosphere in a region known as the stratosphere, ozone filters out incoming radiation from the Sun in the cell-damaging ultraviolet (UV) part of the spectrum. Without this ozone layer, life on earth would not have evolved in the way it has.
The stratosphere is the second major layer of the atmosphere and lies above the troposphere, the lowest layer. It occupies the region of atmosphere from about 12 to 50 km above the Earth's surface, although its lower boundary tends to be higher nearer the equator and lower nearer the poles.