What happens during the ozone cycle?

Answer 1

Short Answer: It is the continuous formation of ozone from oxygen, and the decay of that ozone back to oxygen. Oxygen absorbs UV-B or more energetic radiation (most commonly from our Sun), and dissociates into two separate oxygen atoms. Some of these singlet oxygen atoms combine with an oxygen atom to form ozone. Ozone has several decay paths, but all leave an oxygen molecule at the end: # Ozone encounters another ozone or singlet oxygen and only oxygen results. Ozone is inherently unstable and this does happen. # Ozone absobs UV-B or more energetic radiation (again from the Sun most commonly) and dissociates into an oxygen molecule and a singlet oxygen atom (some few of which will make ozone again). # Ozone encounters the long list of things that ozone will attack, and ozone loses a single oxygen atom to the reaction. Only #3 removes net oxygen from the "pool" of oxygen. There are additional pathways of forming ozone, where a nitrogen molecule temporarily stores the singlet oxygen, until an oxygen molecule is encountered and the payload can be delivered. There are mechanisms that block this "handoff" also, and they also remove oxygen from the "pool".

Answer 2

In the ozone cycle, one of the electrons in the outer- shell, "jumps" to a higher level shell. As you can see from the ozone cycle, any substances other than oxygen that combine with O* will remove the O* from the ozone cycle and decrease the volume of ozone being produced. When this happens, more UV radiation passes through the ozone and is allowed to reach the Earth's surface. With the use of chlorinated refrigerants, chlorine atoms can reach the ozone layer and react with ozone. This is especially dangerous because not only does the chlorine atom destroy the ozone molecule, it too starts its own cycle.