The ozone layer hole is expected to close in the next 50 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States.
Scientists from NOAA observed that, compared to the 1980s, concentrations of hazardous chemicals had decreased by little over 50% in the mid-level of the stratosphere, which they described as a ‘major milestone’ on the route to recovery.
According to NOAA, the Antarctic ozone layer, which shields all life on Earth from the sun’s dangerous radiation, may finally return ‘sometime around 2070.’
Every year, around spring in the Southern Hemisphere, a massive hole starts to emerge as a result of intricate climatic and chemical processes.
The hole, which is being tracked by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), usually begins forming during spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
Since the end of August, CAMS scientists have closely followed the hole’s growth using three-dimensional modelling.
The 2022 Antarctic ozone hole ‘began to emerge in late August and has so far followed similar tendencies from the prior decade in terms of area, minimum total column, mass deficit, and lowest temperature,’ according to Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Our measurements from the beginning of September indicate that the ozone hole’s size is within the normal range. However, given that the ozone holes for 2020 and 2021 only started to become exceptional later on, we will be keeping a careful eye on things over the coming weeks.
Just seven years after scientists found man-made chemicals were harming the ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to attempt and reduce the amount of hazardous substances in the atmosphere.
These chemicals have begun to be phased out in order to safeguard the ozone layer under one of the first accords ever to be widely accepted in United Nations history.
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