Ozone

Examples: OzoneData

SOUTH POLE OZONE DATA Trish Ferrett, Carleton College, Department of Chemistry

The goal of this data/web exercise is to get students to characterize the phenomenon of the ozone hole on their own. This is an opening "buy in" activity designed to spark student interest, curiosity, and a desire to understand the causes of this atmospheric problem. A multitude of very rich data sets are accessible to students. They spend 2-4 hours going over data, working on the overarching question: When did the ozone hole form?

Using the data located at: http://chemistry.beloit.edu/Ozone/index.html (click on "ozone concentrations", and/or "external links") students can answer these kinds of questions:

• Does the S. pole ozone hole seem like a minor or major perturbation to the "normal" amount of ozone?
• What are the most striking observations about the S. Pole ozone satellite data?
• When did the ozone hole form, and how can you tell?
• Given the data you have seen for the S. Pole ozone hole, will it return next year? Why?
• What do altitude plots tell you about the ozone hole that total column ozone results do not?
• What questions do the ozone data bring to mind about the ozone hole? What else would you like to know?

Further information about other published topical modules can be found at: http://chemlinks.beloit.edu/