Ozone layer an altitude of 100 kilometers from the planet's surface. The photochemical mechanisms that give rise to the ozone layer were discovered by the British physicist Sydney Chapman in 1930. Ozone in the Earth's stratosphere is created by ultraviolet light striking ordinary oxygen molecules containing two oxygen atoms (O), splitting them into individual oxygen atoms (atomic oxygen); the atomic oxygen then combines with unbroken O to create ozone, O. The ozone molecule is unstable (although, in the stratosphere, long-lived) and when ultraviolet light hits ozone it splits into a molecule of O and an individual atom of oxygen, a continuing process
Tropospheric ozone Photolysis of ozone occurs at wavelengths below approximately 310-320 nano-meters . This reaction initiates the chain of chemical reactions that remove carbon monoxide, methane, and other hydrocarbons from the atmosphere via oxidation. Therefore, the concentration of tropospheric ozone affects how long these compounds remain in the air. If the oxidation of carbon monoxide or methane occur in the presence of nitrogen monoxide (NO), this chain of reactions has a net product of ozone added to the system. Ozone in the atmosphere can be measured by remote sensing technology, or by "in-situ" monitoring technology. Because ozone absorbs light in the UV