Since the 1980s, air pollution has increased worldwide, but it has increased at a much faster pace in regions close to the equator. "Emissions are growing in places where there is a much greater effect on the formation of ozone," said Jason West, who led the research at UNC-Chapel Hill with former graduate student and first author Yuqiang Zhang. The reason is that ozone, a greenhouse gas and toxic air pollutant, is not emitted but forms when ultraviolet light hits nitrogen oxides (basically combustion exhaust from cars and other sources).
"The findings were surprising," said West. "We thought that location was going to be important, but we didn't suspect it would be the most important factor contributing to total ozone levels worldwide. To find out, the team used a unique European data set of ozone observations from commercial aircraft to confirm the strong increases in ozone above Asia. "A more challenging scenario is that even if there is a net reduction in global emissions, ozone levels may not decrease if emissions continue to shift toward the equator," said Cooper.
Over all I belive that this is a main issue to the climate because we need the ozone to protect us from the harmful UV rays. If we keep polluting the air with gasses that are affecting our atmosphere we will soon not even have an ozone layer to protect us from the sun. Our skin will be affected badly and can ultimately lead to skin cancer. We need to be aware more of what we put into our air and start walking more. We need to burn less fossil fuel so we can keep our atmosphere clean.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161108085028.htm
"The findings were surprising," said West. "We thought that location was going to be important, but we didn't suspect it would be the most important factor contributing to total ozone levels worldwide. To find out, the team used a unique European data set of ozone observations from commercial aircraft to confirm the strong increases in ozone above Asia. "A more challenging scenario is that even if there is a net reduction in global emissions, ozone levels may not decrease if emissions continue to shift toward the equator," said Cooper.
Over all I belive that this is a main issue to the climate because we need the ozone to protect us from the harmful UV rays. If we keep polluting the air with gasses that are affecting our atmosphere we will soon not even have an ozone layer to protect us from the sun. Our skin will be affected badly and can ultimately lead to skin cancer. We need to be aware more of what we put into our air and start walking more. We need to burn less fossil fuel so we can keep our atmosphere clean.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161108085028.htm