Ozone as concentrations in μg/m. The study of ozone concentration in the atmosphere started in the 1920s. The highest levels of ozone in the atmosphere are in the stratosphere, in a region also known as the ozone layer between about 10 km and 50 km above the surface (or between about 6 and 31 miles). However, even in this "layer", the ozone concentrations are only two to eight parts per million, so most of the oxygen there is dioxygen, O, at about 210,000 parts per million by volume. Ozone in the stratosphere is mostly produced from short-wave ultraviolet rays between 240
Ozone layer The ozone layer (which absorbs from about 200 nm to 310 nm with a maximal absorption at about 250 nm) is very effective at screening out UV-B; for radiation with a wavelength of 290 nm, the intensity at the top of the atmosphere is 350 million times stronger than at the Earth's surface. Nevertheless, some UV-B, particularly at its longest wavelengths, reaches the surface, and is important for the skin's production of vitamin D. Ozone is transparent to most UV-A, so most of this longer-wavelength UV radiation reaches the surface, and it constitutes most of the UV reaching the Earth.