Record ozone hole over Antarctica
Over the South Pole, more protective ozone is being lost this year than at any time since measurements began. This was announced by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Based on the size of the ozone hole and its depth in the ozone layer, there is a loss of 40 million tons of ozone this year. That is a million tons more than in the previous record year 2000. According to the Esa, the ozone hole is currently 28 million square kilometers about the size of the USA and Russia together and has almost reached the dimensions of the record hole six years ago. The depth of the hole in the ozone layer reaches values from 1998. Such a significant loss of ozone requires very low temperatures in the stratosphere, said ESA expert Claus Zehner.
The extreme ozone loss this year can therefore be explained by extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere, which are lower than they have been since 1979. As a result, polar stratospheric clouds form, which contain chlorine – from CFCs – which in the Antarctic spring, in turn, ultimately splits the ozone molecules with the help of the onset of sunlight.
This depletion of the ozone layer over the South Pole then lasts until November or December, when the polar vortex - a quasi-stationary wind system around Antarctica - weakens and ozone can flow into the region from lower latitudes to offset the losses. However, over the past decade, the global ozone layer has been depleted by 3 percent overall, increasing the risk of skin cancer or marine organisms even outside the immediate Antarctic environment. Climate researchers have recently detected a recovery in the ozone layer over the South Pole, but it is slow and mainly at lower levels of the atmosphere. They assume that the ozone hole over Antarctica will not disappear before 2065.
