The ozone hole in Antarctica is approaching normal

Dec. 10 () –

The annual ozone hole over Antarctica began to close in early December, which is closer to the historical average than in more recent years.

Over the past four years, the annual ozone hole in Antarctica has persisted longer than usual and has closed during the second half of December. Near-real-time monitoring from the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) shows that the 2024 Antarctic ozone hole has broken the streak by following a more typical evolution.

Other indicators typically used to track the ozone hole, such as total area, were also closer to average than in recent years.

The development of the Antarctic ozone hole in 2024 began later than usual, mainly due to the disruption of the polar vortex after two sudden episodes of stratospheric warming in July. As the polar vortex established itself through August, the chemical depletion of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica was able to take effect, as it does every year.

The area of ​​the ozone hole continued to increase throughout September, closely tracking the 1979-2021 average, and reached its maximum size of 22 million km2 at the end of the month. Not only is it smaller than the area of ​​2023 and 2022, when the maximum area was around 25 million km2, but the maximum occurred later than in 2023 and is in line with the historical averageaccording to Copernicus.

While some of the ozone holes of recent years have been notable for closing later in the year on average, the 2024 closure has been more typical. The area of ​​the ozone hole decreased in size steadily throughout October, in line with the average, but it stabilized until November with an approximate area of ​​10 million km2 per day during the month. The polar vortex broke in the first week of December, quickly bringing the 2024 ozone hole closure in line with the 1979-2021 average closure date.

Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) at ECMPM, said in a statement: “The Montreal Protocol and its subsequent amendments have been very effective in curbing emissions of substances that destroy the ozone layer. , but there is still some variability in this process due to the natural variation of the other atmospheric variables at play. “Hopefully we will see the first signs of recovery from the ozone hole in the coming decades.”