Wednesday, August 30, 2006
NASA: Data indicates Earth's ozone layer is on the mend
Newly released data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) studies shows our ozone layer is healing. Snip from NASA announcement:
Link (with more chart-o-licious infoporn), and here's a 7MB quicktime animation: Link (screengrab shown above).A team led by Eun-Su Yang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, analyzed 25 years of independent ozone observations at different altitudes in Earth's stratosphere, which lies between six and 31 miles above the surface. The observations were gathered from balloons, ground-based instruments, NASA and NOAA satellites.
The stratosphere is Earth's second lowest atmospheric layer. It contains approximately 90 percent of all atmospheric ozone. The researchers concluded the Earth's protective ozone layer outside of the polar regions stopped thinning around 1997. Ozone in these areas declined steadily from 1979 to 1997.
Reader comment: Steve Mallett says,
With threats of funding cuts and various other pressures put upon NASA it seems suspicious, though I hope it is indeed true, that NASA comes out supporting something that Republicans would like to see... that Al Gore is wrong.James Orr says,
The user comment you posted under the story "NASA: Data indicates Earth's ozone layer is on the mend" - is incorrect. It's been known for some time that the ozone layer is improving, a fact that Gore actually mentions in his documentary about global warming, a separate phenomenon.Aaron Suring says,
In his movie "Inconvenient Truth" Gore points to the recovery of the ozone layer as a sign of hope that through policies, change is possible. And that now that we have made progess on the ozone layer we need to start working on carbon dioxide emmisions.
posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:29:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments
