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The stratospheric ozone layer is not a completely uniform stratum, nor does it occur at the same altitude around the globe. It lies closest to the Earth over the poles and rises to maximum altitude over the equator. In the stratosphere, ozone is continuously being made and destroyed by natural processes. During the day the Sun breaks down some of the oxygen molecules to single oxygen atoms, and these reacting with the oxygen molecules that have not been dissociated, form ozone. However, the sunlight also breaks down ozone by converting some of it back to normal oxygen. In addition naturally occurring nitrogen oxides enter into the cycle and speed the breakdown reactions. The amount of ozone present at any one time is the balance between the processes that create it and those that destroy it.

Since the splitting of the oxygen molecules depends directly upon the intensity of solar radiation, the greatest rate of ozone production occurs over the tropics. However ozone is also destroyed most rapidly there, and wind circulation patterns carry the ozone-enriched upper layers of the atmosphere away from the equator. It turns out that the largest total ozone amounts are found at high latitudes. On a typical day the amount of ozone over Minnesota, for example, is 30 percent greater than the amount over Texas, 900 miles farther south. The density and altitude of the ozone layer also change with the seasons, the weather, and the amount of solar activity. Nevertheless, at any one place above the Earth's surface, the long-term averages maintained by natural processes are believed to be reasonably constant.

The amount of ozone near the Earth is only a small percent of the amount in the stratosphere, and exchange of molecules between the ozone layer and the air at ground level is thought to be relatively small. Furthermore, the ozone molecule is so unstable that only a tiny fraction of ground-level ozone could survive the long trip to the stratosphere, so the ozone layer will not be replenished to any significant degree by the increasing concentrations of ozone that have been detected in recent years near the earth's surface. The long-term averages of ozone both near ground level and in the stratosphere are regulated by continuous processes that are constantly destroying and creating it in each of these places. This is why scientists are so concerned about human beings injection into the stratosphere of chemicals like nitrogen oxides, which are catalysts that facilitate the breakdown of ozone. If the ozone layer is depleted significantly, more ultraviolet radiation would penetrate to the Earth's surface and damage many living organisms.