Human Impacts on Atmospheric Chemistry

An overview is given of the main anthropogenic influences on the chemistry of the atmosphere. Industrial and agricultural activities have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere in many important ways, which is reflected especially in the distribution and concentrations of ozone in the troposphere and stratosphere. On one hand, as a result of industrial chlorofluorocarbon emissions, ozone has been depleted in unexpected major ways in the polar stratosphere. On the other hand, especially as a result of NO emissions, tropospheric ozone has increased both in the industrial mid-latitude regions and at low latitudes, in the latter mostly because of tropical biomass burning. In the future, growing anthropogenic emissions by developing nations will have an additional effect on the climate and the self-cleaning (oxidation) power of the atmosphere.