Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 06:39
Forums
South Pole Ozone Changes

Since ozone is made of oxygen why don't you invent something that turns oxygen into ozone? You an attach it to a plane and activate the machine when you are in the ozone layer.

Fri, 01/11/2008 - 09:57

Elke Bergholz

Hi, Thank you for your question. I have consultet the research team and here is the answer to your question:   It is possible to produce or manufacturer ozone from oxygen.That is how nature produces ozone in the upper atmosphere(stratosphere). The ultraviolet light from the sun breaks up oxygenmolecules (O2) to form oxygen atoms (O) which combine with other oxygenmolecules to create ozone (O3).  We can produce ozone in the same way oreven by other chemical reactions, but the problem is that we can't comeclose to making enough (and getting the ozone up into the ozone layer)to be helpful. For example, if we had some ozone generator on a plane orballoon to produce ozone......lets say maybe 1 ton (2000 pounds) perday...... to fill the ozone hole it would be similar to filling a smallswimming pool with water using a teaspoon. Fortunately, there is still alot of ozone up there, and being produced and destroyed all the time sowe won't ever run out of ozone in the ozone layer.The problem with trying to manufacture ozone is the vastamount of ozone we would have to produce and getting it distributedthroughout the upper atmosphere. Bryan Johnson and Elke Bergholz