Gordon Miller Bourne Dobson CBE FRS (25 February 1889 – 10 March 1976) was a British physicist and meteorologist who did important work on ozone.
Gordon Miller Bourne Dobson CBE FRS (25 February 1889 – 10 March 1976) was a British physicist and meteorologist who did important work on ozone.
The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer peaks at 8 to 15 parts per million of ozone, while the average ozone concentration in Earth's atmosphere as a whole is about 0.3 parts per million. The ozone layer is mainly found in the lower portion of the stratosphere, from approximately 15 to 35 kilometers (9 to 22 mi) above Earth, although its thickness varies seasonally and geographically.
The ozone layer was discovered in 1913 by French physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson. Measurements of the sun showed that the radiation sent out from its surface and reaching the ground on Earth is usually consistent with the spectrum of a black body with a temperature in the range of 5,500–6,000 K (5,230–5,730 °C), except that there was no radiation below a wavelength of about 310 nm at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. It was deduced that the missing radiation was being absorbed by something in the atmosphere. Eventually the spectrum of the missing radiation was matched to only one known chemical, ozone. Its properties were explored in detail by the British meteorologist G. M. B. Dobson, who developed a simple spectrophotometer (the Dobsonmeter) that could be used to measure stratospheric ozone from the ground. Between 1928 and 1958, Dobson established a worldwide network of ozone monitoring stations, which continue to operate to this day. The "Dobson unit" (DU), a convenient measure of the amount of ozone overhead, is named in his honor.
Brewer–Dobson circulation refers to the global atmospheric circulation pattern of tropical tropospheric air rising into the stratosphere and then moving poleward as it descends. The basics of the circulation were first proposed by Gordon Dobson and Alan Brewer. The term "Brewer–Dobson circulation" was first introduced in 1963. This circulation pattern explains observations of ozone and water vapor distribution, and has been accelerating in recent decades, likely due to climate change.