Record ozone thinning looms in the Arctic
European scientists are warning that the annual thinning of ozone over the Arctic is shaping up to be especially severe this spring. During the past six weeks, a large portion of the region’s stratosphere has lost at least half of the layer that normally filters out much of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, according to the Science News Magazine.
So people throughout Europe, Canada and much of the northern United States could briefly face exaggerated exposures to ultraviolet radiation this spring.
The article notes that the destruction of ozone in the Arctic vortex could worsen for another month, according to Markus Rex, an atmospheric scientist with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany, which coordinated the measurements and announced the results March 14.
