Ozone Hole

Ozone hole in 2017 the smallest since 1988

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– Ozone hole in 2017 the smallest since 1988:

Measurements from satellites this year showed the hole in Earth’s ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September was the smallest observed since 1988, scientists from NASA and NOAA announced today.

According to NASA, the ozone hole reached its peak extent on September 11, covering an area about two and a half times the size of the United States – 19.6 million km2 (7.6 million mi2) in extent – and then declined through the remainder of September and into October. NOAA ground- and balloon-based measurements also showed the least amount of ozone depletion above the continent during the peak of the ozone depletion cycle since 1988. NOAA and NASA collaborate to monitor the growth and recovery of the ozone hole every year.

“The Antarctic ozone hole was exceptionally weak this year,” said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This is what we would expect to see given the weather conditions in the Antarctic stratosphere.”

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How The Ozone Hole Over The Arctic Disappared

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Ozonschicht über der Nordhalbkugel (Ende Mai 2012): Das Ozon wird bei Temperaturen unterhalb von minus 78 Grad an sogenannten polaren Stratosphärenwolken zersetzt. (Quelle: dpa/NASA)
Ozone layer over the northern hemisphere (the end of May 2012): The ozone is decomposed at temperatures below minus 78 degrees to the so-called polar stratospheric clouds. (Source: AP / NASA)

Google translation (Original German article below.):

– How The Ozone Hole Over The Arctic Disappared (Spiegel, May 31, 2012):

Good news from the Arctic: has startled the giant ozone hole, the researchers in the past year, has disappeared. Human conduct, however, was not in the game – the weather is responsible for the healing of the shield.

After the lunch break may not dawdle Rudolf Denkmann and his colleagues. Time every day to make one, the researchers of the German-French research station in Ny Alesund on AWIPEV Spitsbergen before a large red wooden hall to get their weather observation balloon. Even at temperatures around freezing trudges thinking man these days with the T-shirt through the snow.

Read moreHow The Ozone Hole Over The Arctic Disappared