Layer of woe

there seems to be more bad news pertaining to the ozone layer. The growing ozone hole has allowed for a cooler stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 10-50 km above the Earth.

Scientists led by Ramaswamy Venkatachalam from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the us, measured temperatures and compared them to changes occurring in a computer model and in reality over the past 11 years. Their finding implies that as the stratosphere cools, heat is diverted away from it into the troposphere, the layer just above the Earth.

Cooler air favours ozone depletion. "This could be a self-sustaining effect - ozone loss causes cooling which in turn amplifies ozone depletion," said Ramaswamy.