Regional weather and cold cloud chemistry amplified ozone loss beyond all predictions

Evidence

The Antarctic expeditions revealed that the ozone hole resulted from a confluence of several factors—including some that no one had foreseen. One of the main contributors was the fact that the air above Antarctica is so cold that clouds there are composed of ice particles rather than water vapor. It turned out that these ice particles remove nitric acid from the air, which in turn allows the chlorine released by CFCs to persist longer, increasing ozone depletion. … Meanwhile, the continent’s weather patterns have a distinctive character: powerful, frigid winds circle the South Pole, forming what is known as a polar vortex. This vortex traps the air over Antarctica so that ozone from other regions of the atmosphere cannot easily mix in, and the chlorine present there cannot easily disperse. — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 82

Categorization

• SEED: A twist: the system scientists had mapped was being driven by local couplings (cold clouds removing nitric acid) no model included - a template for ‘theory was right but reality found an unmodeled multiplier’ essay.