Today we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using the terms “ozone layer” and “ozone screen”. To a layman, the different associations with the word ‘layer’ and ‘screen’ will produce different preconceptions as to what the ozone is.

For example, an advantage of the term “layer” is that it is easily related to the idea of a layer amongst other layers in the atmosphere (stratosphere, troposphere, mesosphere). Conversely, it may imply something uniformly distributed across the globe, and thus lead to false visualisations of the layer.

For the term “screen”, the word directly relates to the function of the ozone in the atmosphere, which is, to sort of act as the earth’s sunscreen in absorbing UV rays. However, a disadvantage is the word “screen” being associated to something impermeable, blocking all UV radiation.