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Hole in ozone layer would be bigger than ever 1:09
(CNN) - An ozone hole that formed over the Arctic this spring and eventually became the largest ever recorded has now been closed.
Scientists who were tracking the hole at the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) made the announcement late last week, noting that the "rather unusual" hole was not caused by human activity but by a particularly Arctic polar vortex. strong, CAMS said.
Therefore, despite what you may be thinking, chances are that your recovery may not be due to reduced contamination due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Covid-19 and the associated confinements probably had nothing to do with this," the group said on Twitter. "It has been powered by an unusually strong and long-lived polar vortex, and is unrelated to changes in air quality."
Still, the hole was huge: Most of the ozone generally found about 11 kilometers in the stratosphere was depleted, the group said. The last time such strong chemical depletion of ozone was observed in the Arctic occurred almost a decade ago.
A polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air that surrounds both poles of Earth, according to the National Weather Service. Polar vortices always exist, but generally weaken in the summer and strengthen in the winter. The polar vortex in the Arctic is typically weaker due to the presence of nearby land, as well as mountain ranges that disturb the climate more than its southern counterpart, CAMS said.
The ozone layer is between 15 and 35 km above Earth. It protects us from ultraviolet radiation.
LOOK : Hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic would be bigger than ever
Unlike the hole that developed over the Arctic, the Antarctic ozone hole in the southern hemisphere is generally caused by chemicals such as chlorine and bromine that migrate into the stratosphere. This has caused an ozone hole to develop in Antarctica annually for the past 35 years.
There's also been good news: Last year, the Antarctic ozone hole was the smallest since it was first discovered.
CAMS does not predict that ozone numbers will return to the extremely low levels experienced in early April, offering some hope in these bleak times: the ozone layer is slowly healing, in one way or another.
CNN's Scottie Andrew contributed to this report.
Ozone layer
