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Name: Bradley M.
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Question:
What is the unit of measure scientists use for measuring atmospheric ozone levels?

Replies:
The most popular unit is the Dobson Unit, which gives an idea of the total amount of ozone above a given area of Earth's surface. Imagine all of the ozone above an part of the earth's surface brought down to the surface and sequestered into a layer by itself. The ozone level in Dobson Units tells the thickness of this layer in units of 0.01 mm. So, if the layer would be 1 mm thick, that would be an ozone level of 10 DU.

See the further explanation at the web site for the Total ozone Mapping Spectrometer:

http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/dobson.html

Richard Barrans
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Wyoming

Bradley,

Near the Earth's surface the unit used for the concentration of ozone is ppb (part per billion).

For a column of ozone (from ground to top of the atmosphere) the unit used is the Dobson Unit. See
http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov/dobson.html for more information on total ozone mapping and the Dobson unit.

David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory

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