James G. Anderson Tribute

Abstract

The most important event in the history of atmospheric chemistry, and arguably environmental science, was the discovery and subsequent diagnosis of the Antarctic ozone hole. The pinnacle of that research was the "smoking gun" figure published by Anderson, Toohey, and Brune [Science, 1991, DOI: 10.1126/science.251.4989.39], reproduced here in Figure 1. That plot, based on measurements of chlorine monoxide (ClO), ozone (O_3), and other species on the NASA ER-2 aircraft in 1987, helped galvanize international resolve to remove reactive halogens from the stratosphere, leading first to the London amendments to the Montreal Protocol when the data were known in preliminary form and then to the Copenhagen amendments once the final results were published. Without that action, the global ramifications of ozone loss today would be catastrophic, and increases in the radiative forcing by chlorofluorcarbons would have led to even larger changes in global climate.

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