Mondo Knows Facts
The stratospheric ozone layer screens out harmful UV solar rays
Ozone gas concentrated fifteen to thirty kilometres up absorbs carcinogenic UV radiation
Located within the stratosphere roughly 15 to 30 kilometres above Earth's surface, the ozone layer acts as a crucial planetary shield. It absorbs up to 99 percent of medium-frequency ultraviolet UV-B rays emitted by the Sun, which would otherwise cause skin cancers and damage cellular DNA in plants and animals.
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Tags: earth science, ozone, atmosphere
The stratospheric ozone layer screens out harmful UV solar rays: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Ozone gas concentrated fifteen to thirty kilometres up absorbs carcinogenic UV radiation. The figure is taken from NOAA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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