Ozone hole over Antarctica larger than usual, scientists say

🌐The 2021’s #OzoneHole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one. How do you think it sizes up next to other recent years? Compare it side-by-side with our decades-long record

More on how the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service tracks #ozone➡️https://t.co/U1k51lHMyp pic.twitter.com/mF0EzYTWDC

— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) September 16, 2021

“Forecasts show that this year´s hole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one,” said Vincent-Henri Peuch, who heads the EU’s satellite monitoring service. “We are looking at a quite big and potentially also deep ozone hole.”

Atmospheric ozone absorbs ultraviolet light coming from the sun. Its absence means more of this high-energy radiation reaches Earth, where it can harm living cells.

Peuch noted that last year’s ozone hole also started out unremarkably but then turned into one of the longest-lasting ones on record.

🌐What’s going on with the Antarctic #OzoneHole? It has considerably grown in the last weeks & at present it is in the 25% largest in our data record since 1979. Can you see it form & grow over the last few months in this animation?

CAMS ozone monitoring➡️https://t.co/c2tPB8OBuQ pic.twitter.com/jaRDzYctzw

— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) September 16, 2021

The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, led to a ban on a group of chemicals called halocarbons that were blamed for exacerbating the annual ozone hole.

Experts say it’s likely to take until the 2060s for ozone-depleting substances to be completely phased out.