Qing-Bing Lu, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, published a study in which he spoke about the appearance of a giant ozone hole over the tropics, which had gone unnoticed since the 1980s.. However, experts criticized this study, calling it untenable, reports Live Science..

[see_also ids\u003d"

" He added that he was suspicious of such large-scale changes in the ozone layer, which had so far gone unnoticed..

“Science should never depend on just one study, and this new work needs to be carefully tested before it can be accepted as fact,” said Chipperfield..

Qing-Bing Lu himself called the criticism of his research baseless..

The controversial article was published July 5 in the journal AIP Advances.. Journal Associate Editor Charlie Johnson Jr. noted that the study went through a standard peer review process in which an independent reviewer confirmed that it was suitable for publication.. The editors of the magazine then considered the article worthy of being featured on their site..

Johnson also added that the editors have not received any communication from the scientific community, in which the reliability of the research data would be called into question.. He urged readers to contact the authors or the journal directly in order to make any changes or clarifications to the text..

What the study says.

Ozone is a gas that forms in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Most of the ozone is in the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer, which is located at an altitude of 10-50 kilometers from the surface of the planet.. It acts as a kind of protective shield that protects the Earth from powerful ultraviolet (UV) rays..

In the 1980s, scientists discovered that long-lived atmospheric pollutants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) break down into chlorine and bromine when exposed to UV rays outside the ozone layer.. These reactive elements break ozone molecules apart and thus thin sections of the ozone layer, creating "

Traditionally, the ozone hole is defined as the area where the ozone concentration falls below 220 Dobson units, a measure of the number of ozone molecules in a given column of air that extends from the surface of the planet into space.. The discovery of ozone holes led to the adoption in 1987 of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty aimed at phasing out the production of ozone-depleting chemicals such as CFCs, and now, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the ozone layer is on its way to recovery..

But in his study, Lu said that the new ozone hole could be life-threatening for millions of people in the tropics..

So, he announced the discovery of a " This hole is similar in "

But instead of using the conventional definition of an ozone hole, Lou defined it as " Ozone holes observed over the North Pole were marked by a drop in ozone of about 25%, so this new definition is justified, the scientist believes..

At the same time, he himself admits that the ozone hole over the tropics will not be observed "

Criticism of the study.

Shortly after the publication of Lu's study, several scientists criticized Lu's research at the Science Media Centre, an independent UK-based press center that works with researchers, journalists and policy makers to disseminate accurate scientific information..

" The author's identification of the " Interestingly, his article also does not draw on the extensive literature that explores and documents ozone trends in all regions of the atmosphere,” said Paul Young of Lancaster University in England and co-author of the 2022 Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion report produced by WMO and the United Nations..

Marta Abalos Alvarez from the Department of Earth Physics and Astrophysics at Complutense University (Madrid) added that one of the most important factors affecting ozone concentration in the tropical stratosphere is a phenomenon called the Brewer-Dobson circulation, a global air circulation model that pushes ozone out of the tropics.. This circulation has recently accelerated due to climate change, she said, and this explains the long-term patterns of ozone depletion seen in the tropics..

“In my opinion, [Lu's] article lacks the scientific rigor needed to be a reliable scientific contribution.. It contains a lot of reasoning with serious errors and unsubstantiated claims that contradict previous results that have justification,” Alvarez added..