Atmospheric Anomaly: Phenomenal Ozone Hole Emerges Above Arctic

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Atmospheric Anomaly: Phenomenal Ozone Hole Emerges Above Arctic

Naturally occurring ozone holes are more typical of the atmospheric layers above Antarctica, which is surrounded by vast open oceans, than the Arctic, but this winter season seems to have been an extremely rare exception.

Subzero temperatures have caused ozone levels to plummet, leaving a hole that sprawls from the Hudson Bay in north-eastern Canada all the way to Russia’s northern Arctic islands, Newsweek reported, citing NASA’s Arctic Ozone Watch imagery that shows how the ozone layer in the area has been depleting since early March.

While a hole in the ozone layer appears every spring above Antarctica, which is typically much colder than the Arctic, surrounded by mountainous continents rather than oceans, this year temperatures plummeted in the Arctic, causing a thinner O3 layer.

“The low temperature condition (temperatures less than about 195k) in the Arctic are much less common”, John Pyle, an atmospheric scientist at the UK’s University of Cambridge, told Newsweek, continuing to explain the details of the observed weather conditions:

Per Nature, citing Markus Rex, an atmospheric scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany, there has been more cold air above the Arctic than any other winter for the past 40 years.

However, there is little to worry about, since, researchers assure, the depletion will likely start to repair over the next few weeks:

Separately, the risks of the ozone layer further depleting are on the decrease, as according to Chipperfield, the bans introduced in the 1987 Montreal Protocol will see levels of ozone-depleting chemicals dip still further.

Back in the 1980s, it was first noticed that the ozone layer above Antarctica was increasingly becoming thinner, with scientists determining the cause – excesses of manmade compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

According to the Montreal Protocol, the chemicals found to ruin ozone are prohibited by 196 United Nations member states and the European Union. So the hole popping up annually above Antarctica is believed to have a natural cause, namely temperatures colder than usual, and also naturally heal as time passes.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

Atmospheric Anomaly: Phenomenal Ozone Hole Emerges Above Arctic

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