3 January 2007
The 2006 international state-of-understanding report on the science of the ozone layer was sent on December 27 to the United Nations Environment Programme, a major milestone in the work of the Scientific Assessment Panel of the U.N. Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Background: The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006 report is the 6th in a series of periodic assessments that are prepared for the United Nations Montreal Protocol. The report will be distributed to the over 180 nations (including the United States) that are Parties to the Montreal Protocol, who use it as the scientific basis for their discussions regarding protection of the ozone layer.
The 2006 report, approximately 500 pages in length, describes past and expected future levels of ozone-depleting substances, past and expected future behavior of the ozone layer in polar regions and throughout the globe, implications for ultraviolet radiation at the Earth surface, short-lived ozone depleting substances, and interrelationships between climate and ozone depletion.
The 2006 report updates findings of the previous report in 2002 and builds upon the foundation of knowledge forged in earlier reports in 1988, 1991, 1994, and 1998. This regular series is the output product of updated knowledge on this topic. Each of the reports is prepared by hundreds of scientists worldwide who participate as authors, contributors, and reviewers.
Significance: The ozone assessment is an important component of NOAA's Climate Goal. Scientists in the Chemical Sciences Division and elsewhere in NOAA have played prominent roles in leading, authoring, and reviewing the 2006 ozone assessment. Leading roles of NOAA Research scientists in the 2006 report included CSD scientists serving as one of the three international Cochairs of the assessment panel, as one of the five members of the international Scientific Steering Committee, as well as leading the authorship of two of the nine major components of the report. In addition, several NOAA scientists from OAR, NESDIS, and NWS participated as coauthors, contributors, and reviewers. Scores of NOAA-authored scientific papers are cited in the eight detailed scientific chapters of the report. NOAA also has led the editing, preparation, and publication of the report. NOAA, through its prominence in leading and authoring the report, thereby reaches a truly global suite of information customers. The effort directly serves NOAA's goal of providing scientific information in support of decisionmaking. This assessment also provides the key input to a CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product that NOAA is leading.
Printed copies of the report will be available in April 2007.