An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A form of oxygen, O₃, in which the molecule is made of three atoms instead of the usual two.

From Ger. Ozon, coined in 1840 by Ger. chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799-1868) from Gk. ozon, neute pr.p. of ozein "to smell." So called for its peculiar odor.

Not really a "hole," but a region of exceptionally depleted ozone in the stratosphere over the Antarctic that happens at the beginning of Southern Hemisphere spring (August-October). It was first noticed in the 1970s by a research group from the British Antarctic Survey.

→ ozone; → hole.

An atmospheric layer that contains a high proportion of oxygen that exists as ozone. It acts as a filtering mechanism against incoming ultraviolet radiation. It is located between the troposphere and the stratosphere, around 15 to 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

→ ozone; → layer.

The ozone layer within the stratosphere that filters out potentially lethal intensities of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

→ ozone; shield, from O.E. scield, scild, related to sciell "seashell, eggshell," from P.Gmc. *skeldus (cf. Du. schild, Ger. Schild, Goth. skildus); PIE base *(s)kel- "to cut."

Separ "shield," from Mid.Pers. spar "shield;" cf. Skt. phalaka- "board, lath, leaf, shield," phálati "(he) splits;" Gk. aspalon "skin, hide," spolas "flayed skin," sphalassein "to cleave, to disrupt;" O.H.G. spaltan "to split;" Goth. spilda "board;" PIE base *(s)p(h)el- "to split, to break off;" → ozone.