The ozone hole over Antarctica, which is larger than all of North America, continues to decline despite new fluctuations lately.
According to NASA data, the ozone hole above Antarctica now covers about 26 million square kilometers – which is larger than all of North America – and the hole hasn’t been that big since 2015. fortune affirms.
The ozone hole is closing up
Despite the numbers, the ozone hole is still on the mend.
“The general trend is improvement. All the data points to the healing of the ozone hole,” he says Paolo Newman at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which studies ozone depletion.
The reason it has fluctuated lately and the ozone hole has risen is because there has been a lot of cold air in the atmosphere. The cold creates clouds that release chemicals such as chlorine that destroy the ozone layer.
However, emissions of chlorine and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as bromine have been significantly reduced since the world adopted the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which is described as an environmental success. Chlorine levels have dropped nearly 30% from their peak 20 years ago.
Continuing threats
Despite previous reductions, there is a continuing threat from chemicals, which can remain in the atmosphere for several decades. One of them is a freon, CFC11, which rose a few years ago, where scientists suspect it comes from Chinese factories.
At the same time, scientists warn that climate change could be linked to the increase in the ozone hole as the Earth’s surface gets warmer through burning fossil fuels, while the upper stratosphere gets colder instead.
“The fact that the stratosphere is showing signs of cooling due to climate change is a concern,” says the atmosphere scientist. Martyn Chipperfield vid University of Leeds.
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