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Published online 3 March 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050228-12
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Solar wind hammers the ozone layer
The Arctic ultraviolet shield took a battering from storms in 2004.
A stream of particles from the Sun, in combination with extreme weather conditions, caused an unprecedented thinning last year of the upper Arctic ozone layer.
Scientists have been puzzled by the chemical processes that destroyed up to 60% of ozone molecules in the lower mesosphere and upper stratosphere (the atmospheric layers that lie 30 to 40 kilometres above ground) in the first months of 2004.
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