The Ozone Donut: or Why we get burned more now

1 point

4 years ago

Living in AU, the sun is intense. UV levels in summer are normally 12-14. As UV is measured as a linear scale, this means 4-5 times the winter exposure on a sunny day at midday. When I was in north North America, I did not get burned as much. Could go outside much of the day. So I wondered what was different about Southern Hemisphere vs Northern Hemisphere. What I found is that the ozone hole is massive, and that there is also an ozone 'donut' around the tropics that helps push the UV up to 15 in northern Australia and other tropical places.

Reading NASA and NOAA, it seems like they are saying the hole is getting smaller. But what about the donut? What about toal Dobson levels? What do you interpret will happen to the ozone layer in the next 10-20 years? Why is this not a topic anymore?

USA EPA Sun Safety Monthly Average UV Index https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/sun-safety-monthly-average-uv-index

Australian gov UV index https://www.arpansa.gov.au/our-services/monitoring/ultraviolet-radiation-monitoring/ultraviolet-radiation-index

NOAA UV Index https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/uv_index/uv_current_map.shtml

NOAA Article on Ozone Hole https://www.noaa.gov/news/antarctic-ozone-hole-is-13th-largest-on-record-and-expected-to-persist-into-november

NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory https://gml.noaa.gov/ozwv/dobson/

NASA Article (positive spin?) https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020nasa-data-aids-ozone-hole-s-journey-to-recovery

NASA Ozone Watch (shows donut graphically) https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/SH.html

AU BOM UV index (all of Au EXTREME) http://www.bom.gov.au/uv/index.shtml