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Ozone hole second smallest in 20 years
Thursday October 25, 2012 07:03:27 PM,
IANS
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Washington: There is
some good news on the ozone front - the average area covered by
ozone hole over the Antarctic this year is the second smallest in
the last 20 years.
The ozone hole reached its maximum size Sep 22, covering 8.2
million square miles (21.2 million sq km), or the area of the US,
Canada and Mexico combined, according to data from NASA and
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites.
The average size of the 2012 ozone hole was 6.9 million sq miles
(17.9 million square km). The Sep 6, 2000 ozone hole was the
largest on record at 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million sq
km).
Ozone layer acts as Earth's natural shield against ultraviolet
radiation, which can cause skin cancer. The ozone hole phenomenon
began making a yearly appearance in the early 1980s.
"The ozone hole mainly is caused by chlorine from human-produced
chemicals, and these chlorine levels are still sizable in the
Antarctic stratosphere," said atmospheric scientist Paul Newman of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, according to a
NASA statement.
"Natural fluctuations in weather patterns resulted in warmer
stratospheric temperatures this year. These temperatures led to a
smaller ozone hole," added Newman.
The Antarctic ozone layer likely will not return to its early
1980s state until about 2065, Newman said. The lengthy recovery is
because of the long lifetimes of ozone-depleting substances in the
atmosphere.
Overall atmospheric ozone no longer is declining as concentrations
of ozone-depleting substances decrease. The decrease is the result
of an international agreement regulating the production of certain
chemicals.
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