YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. It’s already 21 years Armenia together with the international community is trying to solve the issue of the restoration of the ozone layer, Armenia Ozone program national coordinator Liana Ghahramanyan said during a press tour organized at the Amberd Meteorological Station on September 16 – the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

“Imagine if the ozone layer didn’t exist, life would disappear on Earth within a week, because the ozone layer is one of the most important shields given by the nature that is protecting life and all of us from harmful UV rays”, she said.

Starting 2000 Armenia’s Hydromet Service is conducting ozone layer observations with the Dobson spectrophotometer, which is the only one in the region. The station is included in the GAW network. “Ozone measuring observations are carried out by the Dobson spectrophotometer in the daytime for 3-5 times”, she said.

Liana Ghahramanyan said the Ministry of Environment is publishing UV indices for all provinces of Armenia depending on the intensity of solar radiation. In case of predicting high UV indices, people are being warned to avoid direct solar radiation.

“The predictions are very important: the population must be informed about the UV index of that particular day because it depends on index how many people should be under sun that day”, she added.

She informed that for 35 years the entire international community managed to replace 99% of the ozone depleting substances, but the ozone layer is still not restored, as it is a complex and long process.

Representative of the Hydromet Service Anna Tsarukyan says the current situation of the ozone layer also impacts the human health, in some cases person can suffer from cancer, etc.

She said from September to November the UV index in Armenia is declining, but in June, July and August is increasing.

“In 2012-2016 the value of the total amount of minimum ozone was registered in 2014, and the maximum in 2019. This proves that the ozone layer is gradually restoring”, Tsarukyan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan