Reflection on two Ambio papers by P. J. Crutzen on ozone in the upper atmosphere
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PERSPECTIVE
Reflection on two Ambio papers by P. J. Crutzen on ozone in the upper atmosphere This article belongs to Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection. Theme: Ozone Layer Ole John Nielsen, Merete Bilde
Received: 4 August 2020 / Revised: 8 October 2020 / Accepted: 21 October 2020 / Published online: 21 November 2020
Abstract We here reflect on two important articles on stratospheric ozone depletion written by P. J. Crutzen (1974) and P. J. Crutzen and D. H. Ehhalt (1977) in the early 1970s. These articles provide a clear description of the stratosphere and the most important chemical reactions involved in stratospheric ozone depletion. They present modeling results and provide recommendations for future research on stratospheric ozone depletion caused by chloro-fluorocarbons, supersonic transport, nitrous oxide, and nuclear explosions. These two articles represent the beginning of a scientific era, which led to discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole and political action in the form of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments. Keywords Chloro-fluoro-carbons Nitrous oxide Nuclear explosions P. J. Crutzen Stratospheric ozone depletion Supersonic transport
thorough introduction to the topic of stratospheric ozone, a review of existing knowledge, while at the same time presenting state-of-the-art model calculations quantifying the impacts on ozone by supersonic transport, nitrous oxide, nuclear explosions, and the use of chloro-fluorocompounds (CFCs). The article can be read almost as a textbook on stratospheric chemistry and physics. In this way, the article likely benefited from being written early in Crutzen’s career and from a need to explain things in simple ways understandable by non-experts. The second article (1977) is an another important article focusing on the consequences of increased use of nitrogen fertilizers and possibly coal combustion on the stratospheric ozone layer—a topic which is still of crucial importance as the Earth’s population and thus the need for food keeps increasing. THE STRATOSPHERE
INTRODUCTION The two articles ‘‘Possible Variations in Total Ozone due to Natural Caurses and Human Activites’’ by P. J. Crutzen and ‘‘Effects of Nitrogen Fertilizers and Combustion on the Stratospheric Ozone Layer’’ by P. J. Crutzen and D. H. Ehhalt were published in Ambio in 1974 (Crutzen 1974) and 1977 (Crutzen and Ehhalt 1977), respectively. They address a topic of immense importance for the environment on Earth, at the time of writing, at this time of reading and reflection and for many years to come, namely the role of stratospheric ozone in shielding the Earth’s surface from short wave ultraviolet (UV) radiation and the possible destruction of stratospheric ozone by human activities. The first article (1974) is a masterpiece among P. J. Crutzens many excellent contributions and provides a
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The 1974 article begins by quantifying the stratospheric layer of ozone as being 3.5 mm thick if it was at sea level. This is an indirect definition of the Dobson unit (Calvert 1990) although Dobson
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