The Ozone Hole Over Antarctica Has Grown Much Deeper And Wider in 2020

 The hole within the ozonosphere over Antarctica has expanded to 1 of its greatest recorded sizes in recent years.

In 2019, scientists revealed that the Antarctic hole had hit its smallest annual peak since tracking began in 1982, but the 2020 update on this atmospheric anomaly – like other things this year – brings a sobering perspective.

"Our observations show that the 2020 hole has grown rapidly since mid-August, and covers most of the continent – with its size well above average," explains project manager Diego Loyola from the German Aerospace Center.

New measurements from the EU Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite show that the hole reached its maximum size of around 25 million square kilometres (about 9.6 million square miles) on 2 October this year.

That puts it in about the identical ballpark as 2018 and 2015's ozone holes, which respectively recorded peaks of twenty-two.9 and 25.6 million square kilometres.

"There is way variability in how far hole events develop every year," says atmospheric scientist Vincent-Henri Peuch from the EU Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

"The 2020 hole resembles the one from 2018, which also was a quite large hole, and is unquestionably within the upper a part of the pack of the last 15 years about."

As well as fluctuating from year to year, the hole over Antarctica also shrinks and grows annually, with ozone concentrations inside the opening depleting when temperatures within the stratosphere become colder.

When this happens - specifically, when polar stratosphere clouds form at temperatures below –78°C (–108.4°F) - chemical reactions destroy ozone molecules within the presence of radiation.

"With the daylight returning to the pole within the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the world," Peuch says.

"After the unusually small and short-lived hole in 2019, which was driven by special environmental condition, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we want to continue enforcing the Montreal Protocol banning emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals."

The Montreal Protocol was a milestone in humanity's environmental achievements, phasing out the manufacturing of harmful chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – chemicals previously employed in refrigerators, packaging, and sprays – that destroy ozone molecules in sunlight.

While we now know that act on this front helps us to mend the Antarctic hole, the continuing fluctuations from year to year show that the healing process is going to belong.

A 2018 assessment by the globe Meteorological Organisation found that ozone concentrations above Antarctica would return to relatively normal pre-1980s levels by about 2060. to understand that goal, we've got to stay to the protocol and last out the bumps, just like the one we're seeing this year.

While 2020's maximum peak is not the largest on record – that was seen back in 2000, with a 29.9 million square kilometre hole – it's still significant, with the opening also being one among the deepest in recent years.

Researchers say the 2020 event has been driven by a robust polar vortex: a wind phenomenon keeping stratospheric temperatures above Antarctica cold.

In contrast, warmer temperatures last year were what led to 2019's record-low hole size, as scientists explained some time past.

"It's important to recognise that what we're seeing [in 2019] is thanks to warmer stratospheric temperatures," histrion, the chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, said at the time.

"It's not an indication that atmospheric ozone is suddenly on a quick track to recovery."

While there could also be no way, and that we can likely expect some more scary peaks within the years ahead, the Montreal Protocol has our back. We're visiting get there someday if we hold true.