What is the current status of the ozone hole 2021?
Scientists from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service confirm that the 2021 Antarctic ozone hole has almost reached its end, following a season with a considerably large and prolonged ozone hole. Its closure will occur only a few days earlier than in 2020, which was the longest lived since 1979.
What is the current status of the ozone?
Credits: NASA Ozone Watch On 27 October, NASA and NOAA confirmed the 2021 ozone hole reached its maximum area on October 7, peaking at 9.6 million square miles (24.8 million square kilometers) – roughly the size of North America – ranking it the 13th largest since 1979.
Is there an ozone hole over Australia?
More about ozone layer depletion This includes a five to nine per cent depletion over Australia since the 1960s, which has increased the risk that Australians already face from over-exposure to UV radiation resulting from our outdoor lifestyle.
What is happening to the ozone layer now?
Today, the ozone hole still exists, forming every year over Antarctica in the spring. It closes up again over the summer as stratospheric air from lower latitudes is mixed in, patching it up until the following spring when the cycle begins again.
Why is the ozone hole in Australia?
The stratospheric ozone layer absorbs the biologically damaging wavelengths of ultraviolet (UV) rays but in the 1970s, Australia’s ozone layer was severely thinned as a consequence of heavy use of ozone-depleting, substances such as chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and hydro-chloroflurocarbons (HCFCs).
Is the ozone hole permanent?
Scientists have found evidence that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is finally beginning to heal. If progress continues, it should be closed permanently by 2050.
How long before the ozone is destroyed?
The latest WMO /UN Environment Programme Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, issued in 2018, concluded that the ozone layer on the path of recovery and to potential return of the ozone values over Antarctica to pre-1980 levels by 2060. This is because of the long lifetime of the chemicals in the atmosphere.
Why Australia has no ozone layer?
Why is Australia sun so strong?
Australia’s unusually harsh sunshine results mainly from its location in the Southern Hemisphere. The elliptical orbit of the Earth places the Southern Hemisphere closer to the sun during its summer months than the Northern Hemisphere during its summer.
Has the ozone hole closed?
CAMS scientists confirmed at the end of last month that the 2021 Antarctic ozone hole closed on 23 December, only a few days earlier than in 2020.
Which country has the thinnest ozone layer?
Abnormal weather patterns in the upper atmosphere over Antarctica dramatically limited ozone depletion in September and October, resulting in the smallest ozone hole observed since 1982, NASA and NOAA scientists reported today.
Which countries have ozone hole?
As the ozone hole over Antarctica has in some instances grown so large as to affect parts of Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa, environmentalists have been concerned that the increase in surface UV could be significant.