Scientists have revealed the current conditions over the South Pole and the ozone hole has continued to show a tendency of shrinkage. Between September 7 and October 13, 2022, the Antarctic ozone hole grew to an average size of 23.2 million square kilometres.
In general, the current estimate over the South Pole continued the recent pattern of overall shrinkage and was marginally smaller than last year. The ozone hole was estimated to be 24.8 million square kilometres in 2021.
Every September, when reactions on high-altitude polar clouds release chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine originating from human-produced substances, the ozone hole, a depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica, starts.
In order to analyse the current trend, scientists at NASA and NOAA used instruments on the Aura, Suomi NPP, and NOAA-20 satellites. They discovered that on October 5, 2022, those satellites observed an ozone hole with a single-day maximum of 26.4 million square kilometres, slightly larger than the previous year.
Additionally, scientists have measured the total column ozone value using a Dobson Spectrophotometer, an optical device that measures the total amount of ozone between the surface and the edge of space.
Compared to the ozone holes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the hole in 2022 is far smaller. The Montreal Protocol’s ban on the release of hazardous ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which causes damage to the hole, is helping the recovery of the ozone layer.
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