The European service Copernicus, which monitors the atmosphere, announced today that the size of the hole in the ozone layer in the southern hemisphere has surpassed the size of Antarctica, a continent of around 14 million square kilometres.
“The ozone hole has grown considerably in the last week and is now larger than 75% of the ozone holes at this time of year since 1979,” announced scientists from the Copernicus program, the European Union's Earth observation programme, who have been closely monitoring the development of the ozone hole over the South Pole.
Today, on the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, the team released new data on the atmospheric layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.
“This year, the hole in the ozone layer developed as expected at the start of the season. It looks very similar to previous years, which were not exceptional in September, but then it became one of the biggest on our records towards the end of the season”, revealed Copernicus director Vincent-Henri Peuch.
According to scientists' estimates, the hole will evolve this year in a different way than usual.
“The vortex is quite stable and stratospheric temperatures are even lower than last year. We are facing a very large and potentially deep ozone hole”, added the researcher.
The observation system relies on computer modelling, combined with satellite imagery, similar to weather forecasts, to obtain a comprehensive three-dimensional image of the ozone hole.
W: https://www.copernicus.eu/en
