Ozone Holes News

April 24, 2024

Top Headlines

Oxidant Pollutant Ozone Removes Mating Barriers Between Fly Species

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries maintained by species-specific pheromones no longer exist. ...

Novel UV Broadband Spectrometer Revolutionizes Air Pollutant Analysis

Apr. 10, 2024 — A research team has developed a broadband UV dual-comb spectrometer with which air pollutants can be continually measured and their reaction with the environment can be observed in real ...

Massive Antarctic Ozone Hole Over Past Four Years: What Is to Blame?

Nov. 21, 2023 — Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past four years; researchers believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) aren't the only things to ...

Massive 2022 Eruption Reduced Ozone Layer Levels

Nov. 20, 2023 — The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano changed the chemistry and dynamics of the stratosphere in the year following the eruption, leading to unprecedented losses in the ozone layer of up to 7% over large areas of the Southern Hemisphere. ...

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New Study Indicates C4 Crops Less Sensitive to Ozone Pollution Than C3 Crops

Nov. 13, 2023 — Researchers have studied the effects of elevated O3 on five C3 crops (chickpea, rice, snap bean, soybean, wheat) and four C4 crops (sorghum, maize, ...

Signatures of the Space Age: Spacecraft Metals Left in the Wake of Humanity's Path to the Stars

Oct. 16, 2023 — Using tools hitched to the nose cone of their research planes and sampling more than 11 miles above the planet's surface, researchers have discovered ...

Alarming Results from World First Study of Two Decades of Global Smoke Pollution

Sep. 20, 2023 — The world's first study of the increase in pollution from landscape fires across the globe over the past two decades reveals that over 2 billion ...

Atmospheric Scientists Reveal Much of Houston's Ozone Exceedance Due to Air Flows from the North

Sep. 11, 2023 — Atmospheric science researchers published findings on Houston's ozone. They found that while local emissions play a role in the rise of Houston's ...

Studies Highlight New Approaches to Addressing Climate Change

Sep. 11, 2023 — Failing to achieve climate mitigation goals puts increasing pressure on climate adaptation strategies. In two new studies, researchers address novel approaches to these ...

Bees Struggle to Find Flowers Because of Air Pollution

Sep. 8, 2023 — A new study has found that air pollution is preventing pollinators finding flowers because it degrades the ...

An Early Warning System for Joint Heat and Ozone Extremes in China

Aug. 9, 2023 — Scientists have identified large-scale climate patterns that could be used to predict the co-occurrence of extreme heat and ozone days in China months before they occur. Like predictions for ...

Geomagnetic Field Protects Earth from Electron Showers

Aug. 4, 2023 — Geophysicists studied the activity of high energy electrons and clarified the unexpected protective role of the geomagnetic field surrounding the ...

Potent Greenhouse Gas Produced by Industry Could Be Readily Abated With Existing Technologies

July 5, 2023 — Researchers have found that one method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is available, affordable, and capable of being implemented right now. ...

Study of Earth's Stratosphere Reduces Uncertainty in Future Climate Change

June 26, 2023 — New research reduces uncertainty in future climate change linked to the stratosphere, with important implications for life on Earth. A significant source of uncertainty relates to future changes to ...

Montreal Protocol Is Delaying First Ice-Free Arctic Summer

May 22, 2023 — New research shows that the 1987 global treaty, designed to protect the ozone layer, has postponed the occurrence of the first ice-free Arctic by as much as 15 ...

Air Pollution from Oil and Gas Production Responsible for $77 Billion in Annual US Health Damages, Contributes to Thousands of Early Deaths, Childhood Asthma Cases Nationwide

May 8, 2023 — A new study found that air pollution from the oil and gas sector in the United States has substantial adverse impacts on air quality, human health, and health costs. The findings show that the ...

Air Pollution Impairs Successful Mating of Flies

Mar. 14, 2023 — A research team demonstrates that increased levels of ozone resulting from anthropogenic air pollution can degrade insect sex pheromones, which are crucial mating signals, and thus prevent successful ...

Ozone Pollution Is Linked With Increased Hospitalizations for Cardiovascular Disease

Mar. 10, 2023 — New evidence shows that exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) ozone limit is associated with substantial increases in hospital admissions for heart attack, heart failure and stroke. Even ...

Smoke Particles from Wildfires Can Erode the Ozone Layer

Mar. 8, 2023 — A new study finds that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer -- and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 ...

Upsurge in Rocket Launches Could Impact the Ozone Layer

Feb. 14, 2023 — Researchers have summarized the threats that future rocket launches would pose to Earth's protective ozone ...

Underlying Assumptions of Air Quality Need to Be Redefined

Jan. 18, 2023 — Long-term measurements in the urban area of Innsbruck, Austria, show that the fraction of ozone near the surface tends to be overestimated in atmospheric models. Consequently, a fundamental ...

Researchers Shed (Laser) Light on Emerging Water Treatment Technique

Dec. 9, 2022 — Assuring that a growing global population has access to clean water will require new water treatment methods. One of these next-generation methods involves a form of iron called ferrate, which ...

Germicidal UV Lamps: A Trade-Off Between Disinfection and Air Quality, Study Finds

Dec. 7, 2022 — When winter chill strikes, people stay indoors more often, giving airborne pathogens -- such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza -- prime opportunities to spread. Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) lamps can help ...

Itchy Eyes and a Runny Nose? It Could Be Climate Change

Dec. 6, 2022 — Researchers have simulated how climate change will affect the distribution of two leading allergens -- oak and ragweed pollens -- across the contiguous United States. The results may make your eyes ...

Cracking the Chemical Code on How Iodine Helps Form Clouds

Nov. 14, 2022 — A new experiment conducted at the world's largest particle physics laboratory, demonstrates the mechanism for how the gas-phase form of iodine -- known as iodic acid -- forms, and suggests it ...

Air Pollution Threatens Natural Pest Control Methods in Sustainable Farming

Nov. 9, 2022 — When fields of oilseed rape are exposed to diesel exhaust and/or ozone -- both found in emissions from diesel burning vehicles and industry -- the number of parasitic insects available to control ...

Ozone Hole Continues Shrinking in 2022, NASA and NOAA Scientists Say

Oct. 27, 2022 — The annual Antarctic ozone hole reached an average area of 8.9 million square miles (23.2 million square kilometers) between Sept. 7 and Oct. 13, 2022. This depleted area of the ozone layer over the ...

Ozone Pollution Threatens Plant Health and Makes It Harder for Pollinators to Find Flowers

Sep. 29, 2022 — Over the past decades, rising levels of ozone pollution have been interrupting pollination, impacting the livelihood of both plants and the animals that pollinate them. Researchers now explain how an ...

Anthropogenic Air Pollution More Significant Than Desert Dust

Sep. 22, 2022 — At the beginning of the year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the Middle East ranks among the regions with the worst air quality. There is a common misconception that desert dust ...

Grimy Windows Could Be Harboring Toxic Pollutants

Sep. 15, 2022 — Dirty windows can harbor potentially harmful pollutants under protective films of fatty acids from cooking emissions -- and these can hang around over long periods of ...

Smoke from the Black Summer Wildfires in Australia Impacted the Climate and High Altitude Winds of the Southern Hemisphere for More Than a Year and a Half

Sep. 6, 2022 — The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached ...

People Generate Their Own Oxidation Field and Change the Indoor Air Chemistry Around Them

Sep. 1, 2022 — High levels of hydroxyl radicals (OH) can be generated indoors, simply due to the presence of people and ...

Scientists Develop New Method to Assess Ozone Layer Recovery

Aug. 24, 2022 — Researchers have developed a new method for assessing the impacts of ozone-destroying substances that threaten the recovery of the ozone ...

New Antarctic Study Shows Levels of 'Forever Chemicals' Reaching the Remote Continent Have Been Increasing

July 28, 2022 — New evidence from Antarctica shows that toxic 'fluorinated forever chemicals' have increased markedly in the remote environment in recent decades and scientists believe CFC-replacements ...