Question

What happens when higher energy ultraviolet radiations act on the oxygen at the higher level of the atmosphere?

Answer 1

Hint: The sun light consists of ultraviolet light that gets trapped by the Earth’s atmosphere. This light is absorbed due to the ozone layer found in the atmosphere that traps and provides protection from the ultraviolet light.

Complete Answer:
- To solve this question, we should know about the ozone layer. The Ozone layer is found in the stratosphere, the second layer is the atmosphere of Earth. The stratosphere is the protective glass layers that cling to the planet.
- So, from the above information it is clear that ozone is a good trapping of ultraviolet light that gets penetrated inside the skin of an organism and damages the DNA of the organism. The UVB and UVA are the two types of ultraviolet radiation.
- The UVB causes skin conditions like skin cancer and sunburn. The basal cell gets affected and causes carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The stratosphere increases in the warmth with elevation as the ultraviolet radiation from the sun that is absorbed by the upper layer. The ozone layer is made up of three molecules and these molecules work like a sponge and absorbs the radiation of the sun by the Earth in short; the ozone layer acts as the shield of the Earth.
- Now, the three molecules of oxygen the ozone is made up of and these molecules are destroyed and reformed naturally. The hydrocarbons like chlorofluorocarbons found in the air make it difficult for the ozone layer to reform when it gets destroyed. The ozone layer gets thinner day by day due to some of the toxic gases that are produced due to some human activity and results in producing an ozone hole.

Note: The aerosol that is used by the humans is one of the major causes of ozone layer depletion. This gas gets mixed with the atmosphere and for toxic gases like CFCs that we have learnt causes damage to the ozone layer.