What Happens If The Ozone Layer Is Damaged? Here's The Explanation

What happens if the ozone layer is damaged? (doc. NASA)

YOGYAKARTA -Ozon is a very important layer to protect the Earth and all the life of the creatures on its surface from solar radiation. However, what happens if the ozone layer is damaged?

The location of the ozone layer is in the stratosphere layer which is at an altitude of 10 - 40 km above the Earth's surface. ozone damage is caused by various things, one of which is Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) which is mostly produced from human activity.

Quoted from the book Explore of Iptek Cyber Muda by Irwan Suhanda (2007), the ozone layer since 1960 shows a downward graph. The issue of ozone depletion has also become a hot topic for experts or world leaders and is often discussed by the United Nations (UN) in its forum.

The first to find ozone layer damage was a team of British Space Survey (BAS) researchers, in the Antarctic Continent in 1970. 15 years later, the ozone hole above the Antarctic Continent became the record for the most severe damage with a diameter of 29 million square kilometers.

At first the researchers thought this was due to damage to atmospheric monitoring tools. After the new tool was replaced, the results turned out to be the same.

The researchers also concluded that the damage to the ozone layer occurred due to natural phenomena. The hole of severe ozone damage is then given the term ozone hole.

Recently, the destruction of the ozone layer has penetrated the region above the north pole, although not as severe as the south pole. Therefore, it is important for humans to reduce the use of chemicals that can cause ozone hole damage.

Quoted from the Science Alert page, the latest study concluded that without ozone, the air on Earth would feel colder by 3.5 Kelvin. This will have a negative impact on the climate on Earth.

To understand how important the ozone layer is, scientists take advantage of a series of Earth's climate simulations. They vary the amount of ozone in the upper atmosphere and allow the Earth's temperature to reach equilibrium.

They conclude that the presence of ozone provides a warm-up effect on the Earth's surface temperature, the average Earth's surface temperature increases by around 3.5 Kelvin. The main effect of reducing the ozone layer is the cooling of the upper stratosphere.

The reduced ozone layer and stratosphere cooling will also shake the atmosphere layer that prevents cloud formation. This will allow clouds to appear only at lower and higher altitudes.

The more extensive the ozone hole, the ultraviolet radiation will increase. If the dose is very high, it will cause skin cancer and cataracts as well as environmental damage on the Earth's surface.

In addition, plant growth will also be disrupted if exposed to high doses of ultraviolet radiation. Soil moisture will also be further eroded as ultraviolet light can kill microorganisms on the ground surface.

That's a review of what happens if the ozone layer is damaged. Hopefully this information will be useful! Visit VOI.id to get other interesting information.