WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A hole that opens annually in the ozone layer over Earth's southern pole was relatively small in 2024 compared to other years, scientists say.
As healing continues in the atmosphere over the Antarctic, scientists with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration project the ozone layer could fully recover by 2066.
During the peak of ozone depletion season from September 7 through October 13, 2024, the area of the ozone hole ranked the seventh smallest since recovery began in 1992, NASA said. It was in that year that the Montreal Protocol, a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, began to take effect.
At almost 8 million square miles (20 million square kilometers), the monthly average ozone-depleted region in the Antarctic this year was nearly three times the size of the contiguous U.S. The hole reached its greatest one-day extent for the year on Sept. 28 at 8.5 million square miles (22.4 million square kilometers).
The improvement is due to a combination of continuing declines in harmful chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemicals, along with an unexpected infusion of ozone carried by air currents from north of the Antarctic, scientists said.
'The 2024 Antarctic hole is smaller than ozone holes seen in the early 2000s,' said Paul Newman, leader of NASA's ozone research team and chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 'The gradual improvement we've seen in the past two decades shows that international efforts that curbed ozone-destroying chemicals are working.'
The ozone-rich layer high in the atmosphere acts as a planetary sunscreen that helps shield the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Areas with depleted ozone allow more UV radiation, resulting in increased cases of skin cancer and cataracts. Excessive exposure to UV light can also reduce agricultural yields as well as damage aquatic plants and animals in vital ecosystems.
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