The Ozone Layer

Paper Summary:

This paper examines data on the effects of aircraft emissions on stratospheric ozone since the 1960s discovery that the emission of nitrous oxides and water vapor in the engine exhaust from supersonic transport planes may be destructive to the ozone layer. The ozone layer is the layer which keeps much of the sun's biologically harmful ultra-violet radiation from reaching the Earth's surface stratospheric ozone. It also analyzes how the continual destruction and production of ozone and the complex reactions between aerosols and exhaust emissions makes it difficult to assess the extent of the problem with currently available data.

From the Paper:

"In 1971, Crutzen's theory was used to block the plan for the development of a fleet of high-speed supersonic aircraft (SSTs). It was believed that the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust from these planes would pose a serious threat to the ozone layer. As a result, the U. S. SST plan was abandoned. It is paradoxical that, while the environmental consequences of increasing the number of high-speed aircraft are viewed as being a serious threat to the ozone layer, air travel continues to increase annually (7). The demand for faster aircraft for travel to more distant destinations is spurring atmospheric chemists to research the effects of emissions from SSTs, and to develop ways to make engines whose exhaust is less damaging to the ozone layer."

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