PROGRESS TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION

The possibility that the stratospheric ozone layer could be depleted by half at certain latitudes and seasons would have been deemed a preposterous and alarmist suggestion in the early 1980s. A decade later, the statement is acknowledged as proved beyond reasonable scientific doubt. Observations of the composition of the Antarctic stratosphere have established that the chemistry of this region is highly unusual because of its extreme cold temperatures, leading to a greatly enhanced susceptibility to chlorine-catalysed ozone depletion. © 1990 Nature Publishing Group.