UN Weather Body: Antarctic Ozone Hole Expands Due to Cold

“While the current ozone hole is larger than in recent years, the area occupied by this year’s hole is consistent with our understanding of ozone depletion chemistry and consistent with colder than average weather conditions in Earth’s stratosphere, which help drive ozone depletion”.

Paul Newman, chief scientist for earth sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said prolonged wintertime conditions in the Antarctic region were persisting longer than usual, and that unusually weak vertical energy flows were among major contributors to the exceptionally large hole. The data is based on NASA observations earlier this month. It spanned 28.2 million square kilometers – the fourth-largest area measured since the start of the satellite record in 1979.

In comparison, past year the ozone hole peaked at 24.1 million square kilometres on September 11. The hole reached its peak on October 2 and remained large and set many area daily records throughout.

For more than 30 years scientists have monitored the ozone layer above Antarctica.

Harmful chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons, are the main culprits and cause the ozone to get thinner and thinner. Thanks to the montreal protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone layer, atmospheric levels of these ozone depleting compounds are slowly declining.

Ozone layer acts as a shield for life on Earth against harmful rays from the Sunday.

Ozone molecules, which are composed of three oxygen atoms joined together, are continuously formed and broken apart in the ozone layer. “This year it is extremely cold over the Antarctic”, he said. Scientists expect the hole to patch itself and ozone to recover in time. Scientists say that the Antarctic ozone layer usually expands during August to September because of the high levels of CFCs and bromine in the atmosphere.

Coupled with this, from late September through October of 2015, the stratosphere over the Antarctic was exceptionally cold, which produced a situation that was particularly favourable for the ozone-destroying reactions.

The giant measurement of this yr’s ozone hole will doubtless end in will increase of unsafe ultraviolet rays on the Earth’s floor, notably in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere within the coming months. Each springtime over the last now almost 35 years, there’s been a depletion of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica primarily due to two really important factors.

While you may have thought the ozone hole was mended after the ban of harmful ozone-depleting gases, it’s still there. Ozone depletion also leads to crop damage and adversely affects our body’s overall immunity.