Ozone Hole Reaction-Diffusion Field: Polar Vortex Chlorine Chemistry

This simulation treats stratospheric ozone depletion as what it physically is — a continuous field problem, not a box of colliding particles. A latitude–altitude grid tracks four coupled concentration fields (O₃, atomic O, free Cl, bound ClO), each evolved every frame by the real mass-action rate equations for the Rowland–Molina catalytic cycle plus an actual diffusion term solved by finite differences. A shaded polar-vortex region runs a boosted reaction rate and a diffusion barrier at its edge, the same two mechanisms — cold-temperature-activated chemistry and transport isolation — that cause the real Antarctic ozone hole to form as a sharp, localized feature rather than a uniform planet-wide thinning. Sliders control UV photolysis, total Cl catalyst loading, the reaction rate constant, vortex strength and background turbulent mixing, while live readouts track domain-wide ozone remaining, the spatial ozone-hole area (a metric that only exists once the phenomenon lives on a 2D field), cumulative catalytic destructions, and the average chain length per chlorine unit — the number that shows the same catalyst being reused thousands of times rather than consumed.