Arctic Ozone Experiment NSF. Purdue, NASA

Press Release 13-071
Sunlit Snow Triggers Atmospheric Cleaning, Ozone Depletion in the Arctic


Finding is related to snow atop sea ice, adding a new dimension to scientific concerns about loss of Arctic ice


Kerri Pratt, an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Polar Regions Research, conducts a snow-chamber experiment in -44F windchill near Barrow, Alaska.

Credit: Photo credit Paul Shepson, Purdue University

Original here [link]

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I chose 'Natural Events,' because, quite simply, the Ozone Hole IS a natural event.

Article on the experiment here Sunlit Snow Key to Arctic Ozone DepletionI have long recalled that the Ozone Hole was first discovered in the 1950s. That always seemed to me to be a bit Too early, for it to have been an effect of chemical reactions in the atmosphere, with human-produced CFCs.

More recently, I had read that the effect of ocean waves produces halogens, which interact with and destroy ozone. I'd say the oceans likely have an effect a couple of magnitudes greater than humans, don't you think?

And now we find- direct from the National Science Foundation, Purdue and NASA- that Snow actually plays a role in the equation.

I've been wondering for a long time if the Ozone Hole, were not just another feed