Jan Wesner Childs
Scientists with the European Space Agency say the annual hole in the ozone layer grew to a record size in September.
But that's not as bad as it sounds. The hole in the ozone layer appears each year around this time, and varies in size due to temperature and other atmospheric conditions.
"Ozone isn't just up there ... some is created and some is destroyed on a regular basis," Stephen Montzka, lead scientist for NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, told weather.com in an interview.
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The hole in the ozone layer isn't exactly a hole. Rather, it's a thinning of the atmosphere that happens over Antarctica.
And it isn't present all the time. The hole appears seasonally during the polar spring, which coincides with fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
It's all because of extreme weather and other conditions that exist over Antarctica. The cold, dark winter there allows for unique polar stratospheric clouds to form high up in the atmosphere. They interact with ozone depleting chemicals, which are activated by ultraviolet light when the sun finally comes up again after months of darkness.
"The stratosphere in the springtime over Antarctica is the coldest region of the stratosphere," Montzka said. "It's been isolated from the sun for the whole winter."
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Montzka said it's too early to characterize the overall size of the hole this year. It usually reaches its peak and then begins to subside again in September and October.
Scientists at the European Space Agency said the hole grew to three times the size of Brazil in September, which made it one of the largest on record at that time.
There were some predictions that water vapor emitted from the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in the western Pacific Ocean in January 2022 could make the ozone hole larger than usual this year.
Year over year, the ozone layer remains on track for full recovery in the next few decades, Montzka said.
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The ozone hole first came to the attention of scientists in the 1970s and 1980s. It was linked to pollution from chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were used in air conditioning, refrigerants and other applications. The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, banned CFCs, but they still persist in our atmosphere.
The Global Monitoring Lab keeps tabs on the ozone layer to ensure countries are adhering to the Montreal Protocol, which is considered the most successful agreement of its kind.
"Ozone is fairly important because it filters out high energy UV light from the sun that if that layer wasn't there, life on Earth wouldn't exist as we know it today," Montzka said.
Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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