Measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite show that this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is one of the biggest on record. The hole, which is what scientists call an ‘ozone depleting area,’ reached a size of 26 million sq km on 16 September 2023. This is roughly three times the size of Brazil.
Where did you hear that? CFCs can linger in the atmosphere for 50-100 years, so recovery is a slow process. It took more than a decade after the Montreal Protocol went into effect before the hole in the ozone layer stopped growing. Additionally, different parts of the ozone layer will recover at different rates:
The hole was set to be normal by now.
Where did you hear that? CFCs can linger in the atmosphere for 50-100 years, so recovery is a slow process. It took more than a decade after the Montreal Protocol went into effect before the hole in the ozone layer stopped growing. Additionally, different parts of the ozone layer will recover at different rates: