Ozone is a gas that is closely related to oxygen - yes, the gas we breathe in. Is Ozone good or bad for us? Well, it is both good and bad. Ozone is a very bad gas to our health when it exist close to the ground. However, beyond this region it is very good as it protects us from the harmful effect of the sun. So, we want ozone in the upper atmosphere but not in the lower atmosphere.
There are a lot of things that remove ozone from the upper atmosphere. One of them is the amount of trees or vegetation we have on the ground. This is one of the reason people concerned about the environment ask that we plant trees around us. How exactly does the amount of trees affect the total ozone in the atmosphere? This was the focus of the research by Ogunjo and other researchers [1].
To do this, there is the need to assign numbers to trees. Impossible? Using satellite data, regions with very high amount of trees and vegetation are given the number 1 while places with no trees or vegetation get the number 0. This method constitute the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). From a similar satellite, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere was also gotten. The authors now conducted an analysis over West Africa. Their result can be seen in the figure below.
There are a lot of things that remove ozone from the upper atmosphere. One of them is the amount of trees or vegetation we have on the ground. This is one of the reason people concerned about the environment ask that we plant trees around us. How exactly does the amount of trees affect the total ozone in the atmosphere? This was the focus of the research by Ogunjo and other researchers [1].
To do this, there is the need to assign numbers to trees. Impossible? Using satellite data, regions with very high amount of trees and vegetation are given the number 1 while places with no trees or vegetation get the number 0. This method constitute the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). From a similar satellite, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere was also gotten. The authors now conducted an analysis over West Africa. Their result can be seen in the figure below.
 |
| Figure 1: Linear relationship between NDVI and total ozone column [1] |
The
authors found out that as we cut and burn trees in West Africa we
reduce the amount of ozone available to protect us. It could be seen from their figure that if the amount of vegetation increases, the total ozone column also increases and vice versa. They discovered
that regions with high amount of vegetation also have high amount of
ozone. The rapid population growth in West Africa (especially
Nigeria) is increasing the demand for housing, clothing, feeding, and
other necessities. All these place demand on our vegetation. The
best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is NOW!
There is the urgent need to protect our future by increasing our
vegetation. This is not a job for one but for all.
References[1] Ogunjo, S., Fuwape, I., Rabiu, B., Oluyamo, S., & Owoola, E. (2019). Assessing the Impact of Vegetation Cover on Total Column Ozone Over West Africa. In Advances in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics Applications (pp. 231-233). Springer, Cham.
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