Total atmospheric ozone

The photochemical theory of ozone production predicts that the maximum amount of total atomospheric ozone at any latitude should occur in summer and that there should be more ozone at the equator than the poles.⁷ Interestingly enough, however, observations made to date of the total ozone amount indicate that all of these theoretical predictions are false. That is, maximum amounts of stratospheric ozone occur not in the summer but in the late winter or early spring, while minimum amounts occur in the late summer or early fall. Furthermore, considerably more ozone is present at high latitudes than at the equator. Thus, it is clear that the photochemical theory alone can not explain the various observed features of atmospheric ozone.

Measurements of total atmospheric ozone made in the past revealed a number of relationships between total ozone amount and meteorological conditions.⁸ Indeed, it is generally agreed that the results of research in atmospheric ozone are potentially important in practical applications to meteorology.

A webpage providing the history of ozone discovery and ozone observations can be found by clicking here.

Today atmospheric ozone may be measured from aircraft, balloons, satellites and space shuttle missions. However, the worldwide "Dobson network" is the only source of long-term data. A station at Arosa in Switzerland has been measuring ozone since the 1920's, and some other stations have records that go back nearly as long (although many were interrupted during World War II). The present worldwide network started operation in 1956-57, and observations of total atmospheric ozone began in Nashville in the early 1960's.