Ozone

Something, probably fluorescent bulbs, got me started on the ozone layer. Supposedly, ozone in the stratosphere blocks most of the UV (Ultra-Violet) light from the sun and keeps us all from frying to a frizzle. But there is not a great deal of ozone up there, we are talking parts per million. And ozone is constantly being created and destroyed by this same UV light, at least according to some folks. Other people say ozone is created by lightning strikes and is wafted upwards into the stratosphere. If this is the case, why is there more ozone in the stratosphere where there is no weather and therefor no lightning, than there is in the troposphere where there is lighting? Okay, ozone is special and is blown upwards by special ozone blowing forces.

But if ozone is being created by UV light from the sun, then wouldn't the creation be absorbing as much, or more, UV light than the destruction?

Ozone is created when you have a bunch of O2 molecules, and some of them get blasted apart by high energy photons (lighting, electrical arcs, UV radiation). The free oxygen molecules latch onto non-blasted O2 molecules and form ozone, or O3. Now ozone is unstable, except it is long lived in the troposphere (on the order of half an hour). Sooner or later it will break down by itself into an O2 molecule and a free oxygen atom, which will search out another free oxygen atom and combine to form another molecule of O2. This breakdown can be accelerated by being blasted by a high energy photon from (what? again?) UV light! Breakdown can also be hurried along by the presence of chlorine (which is also what makes bleach so powerful).

I used to know that ozone had a distinct smell, now I am not so sure. Some places claim it does have an odor, some places claim it is something else that is created when ozone is created that smells. And it might be lethal, though how you would get enough to kill you seems to be a bit of a trick. I suspect at ground level it would breakdown before you could breath enough to hurt yourself. But don't try it on my say so.