Ozone is a minor but important constituent of the earth's atmosphere.
While it is essential for life as we know it today, it is also a toxic gas that can result in significant physiological and ecological damage, if exposures exceed critical limits. In both the stratosphere and troposphere, ozone concentration levels depend on multitudes of linked chemical and meteorological mechanisms, which vary profoundly with space and time. Human pollutant emissions often perturb these linkages, resulting in significant increases or decreases in ozone concentration. While many facets of ozone's atmospheric behavior are well understood, a large number of important uncertainties remain, whose resolution will require substantial combined efforts by the meteorological and chemical communities. The AMS recognizes ozone as an atmospheric constituent that has a number of important beneficial as well as detrimental effects on the atmosphere, on surface ecosystems, and on humankind.