Daily ozone hole images from Jul 1, 2012 to Oct. 19, 2012. The ozone hole max is on Sept. 22, 2012. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center – click image for movie
WASHINGTON — The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole this year was the second smallest in the last 20 years, according to data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Scientists attribute the change to warmer temperatures in the Antarctic lower stratosphere.
The ozone hole reached its maximum size Sept. 22, covering 8.2 million square miles (21.2 million square kilometers), or the area of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined. The average size of the 2012 ozone hole was 6.9 million square miles (17.9 million square kilometers). The Sept. 6, 2000 ozone hole was the largest on record at 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million square kilometers).
“The ozone hole mainly is caused by chlorine from human-produced chemicals, and these chlorine levels are still sizable in the Antarctic stratosphere,” said NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Natural fluctuations in weather patterns resulted in warmer stratospheric temperatures this year. These temperatures led to a smaller ozone hole.”
Atmospheric ozone is no longer declining because concentrations of ozone-depleting chemicals stopped increasing and are now declining.
This image shows projected ozone concentrations for the year 2042, with (left) and without (right) the Montreal Protocol to reduce CFCs begun in the 1980s.
The 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 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.
This year also marked a change in the concentration of ozone over the Antarctic. The minimum value of total ozone in the ozone hole was the second highest level in two decades. Total ozone, measured in Dobson units (DU) reached 124 DU on Oct. 1. NOAA ground-based measurements at the South Pole recorded 136 DU on Oct. 5. When the ozone hole is not present, total ozone typically ranges from 240-500 DU.
This is the first year growth of the ozone hole has been observed by an ozone-monitoring instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. The instrument, called the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS), is based on previous instruments, such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument (SBUV/2). OMPS continues a satellite record dating back to the early 1970s.
In addition to observing the annual formation and extent of the ozone hole, scientists hope OMPS will help them better understand ozone destruction in the middle and upper stratosphere with its Nadir Profiler. Ozone variations in the lower stratosphere will be measured with its Limb Profiler.
“OMPS Limb looks sideways, and it can measure ozone as a function of height,” said Pawan K. Bhartia, a NASA atmospheric physicist and OMPS Limb instrument lead. “This OMPS instrument allows us to more closely see the vertical development of Antarctic ozone depletion in the lower stratosphere where the ozone hole occurs.”
NASA and NOAA have been monitoring the ozone layer on the ground and with a variety of instruments on satellites and balloons since the 1970s. Long-term ozone monitoring instruments have included TOMS, SBUV/2, Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment series of instruments, the Microwave Limb Sounder, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, and the OMPS instrument on Suomi NPP. Suomi NPP is a bridging mission leading to the next-generation polar-orbiting environmental satellites called the Joint Polar Satellite System, will extend ozone monitoring into the 2030s.
NASA and NOAA have a mandate under the Clean Air Act to monitor ozone-depleting gases and stratospheric depletion of ozone. NOAA complies with this mandate by monitoring ozone via ground and satellite measurements. The NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., performs the ground-based monitoring. The Climate Prediction Center performs the satellite monitoring.
To monitor the state of the ozone layer above Antarctica, visit:
There are many other factors that affect ozone they did not quantify or even mention above (perhaps more info in the full article…)
– Strength of the winds, size/shape of the vortex, if as pochas points out – the vortex itself causes ozone loss. (link?)
– Total ozone concentration of the entire atmosphere, how has that changed (isn’t that the most important thing compared to a spot where no one lives that has regional effects)? Vs:
– Total chlorine in the atmosphere, and in the polar region, how much released by humans, and how has that changed?
– Storminess of the sun: “A violent sun affects the Earths Ozone” http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ProtonOzone/ … we’re in a very weak cycle, how big are the effects?
– So many other factors, a few of which have been mentioned, how big are their effects?
Blaming humans is so typical… and gives that added Bonus! Job security!
Bill Illis says:
October 24, 2012 at 6:36 pm
The hole more-or-less started after the March-April 1982 El Chichon volcano
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As I recall there were a couple of early papers that found there was a hole years before, but they were largely discounted. It wasn’t until the Dupont patent ran out that the ozone hole became an issue, so that CFC’s would be banned, forcing everyone to switch to their new patent.
But of course few people remember how the world was duped to protect a commercial interest armed with deep pockets to buy the best science available.
davidmhoffer says:
October 24, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Ozone is produced by specific wavelengths of UV from the sun that ionize oxygen. Other wavelengths and processes break ozone down. In the tropics and temperate zones, the processes pretty much balance out. At the poles, sometimes production is favoured and sometimes breakdown is favoured. The elliptical orbit of the earth tends to favour a larger inbalance of one vs the other over the course of a year in the antarctic versus the arctic.
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So at the end of either poles winter, after months of the Sun not shining, the ozone layer at that pole is at it’s thinnest.
So we don’t need to get rid of CFCs, we need to figure out how to blame Man for the poles being where the Sun don’t shine.
This is neither “good news” nor “bad news”, it’s just news.
Other than “faith”, there is no credible reason to believe the ozone hole over Antarctica is either affected by, nor has any effect on, human activity. It’s just… something that happens. I do feel bad for the people who fret and worry about this, though. There are so many valid things to worry about.
“pochas says:
October 24, 2012 at 2:51 pm
[Ozone’s] autodecomposition reaction is pressure dependent. At stratospheric pressures ozone is stable, but at surface pressures it decomposes rapidly even with no catalytic substances present (like the freons).”
What normlly is the pressure at the south pole? I expect it will be on the high side because
1. Cold air is more dense
2. There is no centripetal force at the south pole (as opposed to at the equator).
So, if the pressure at the south pole ordinarily is greater than anywhere else, shouldn’t we expect autodecomposition and an ozone hole?
I do not have much time for this pseudoscience. A large amount of hype just in time to keep the patten protected profits for du Pont. The molecular density is so low at the measurement altitudes it is a wounder they can find any at all.
But…but… the CAGW *sigh*entists say the reason for the record maximum Antarctic ice extent this year was due to the GROWING ozone hole!
The CAGW *sigh*entists are RIGHT!
This fabricated ozone data was obviously funded by Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Nuke, the Koch brothers… and… and… Mitt Romney PAC funds!….
sarc/off….
Hell is a human contrivance where truth, reason and logic cease to exist…
…. and then there are some claiming that increased Antarctic ice, as in record Antarctic ice extents, are due to to an increased ozone hole.
It’s all so confusing. Could you warmists please get your fabrications in sync.
Normally, the stratosphere is supported by the convection of water vapor. The bottom of the stratosphere is approximately -40C. When the troposphere is colder, the stratosphere/troposphere boundary breaks down. Stratospheric air proceeds straight down to the surface, where it pushes outward. The ozone is brought along through the troposphere. The satellites are looking for ozone at the “usual” altitude.
Remember the arctic ozone hole in winter of 2010-11? The northern jet stream had bifurcated and had a consistent circulation restraining the “cold” air around the north pole. This year, the jet stream is splitting again. So, I look forward to hearing the doom stories about an Arctic ozone hole this January.
My understanding is that ozone is created by UV interaction with O2 which provides the energy to disassociate the Oxygen into its atoms which then recombine with other O2 molecules to produce O3. The whole process is apparently quite complex and is temperature and pressure dependent and certainly Chlorine and Fluorine have an impacts too…
…but until recently it wasn’t known that UV varied as much as it apparently does and so it seems to me the variations of UV levels probably play a much larger role than anything else when it comes to maintaining the O3 levels in the atmosphere.
Can I have my old, cheap, efficient, low working pressure, compatible with dated hardware R 22
Freon back now ???
Take a peek at the EPA’s website on R22 for a sardonic laugh.
I dont know why they call it a hole as theres no hole there just a thining of the ozone.
Well Ozone holes first appeared, when someone first looked for one. But ozone holes existed long before anyone thought to look for one, as evidenced by by a history of observed color Temperature changes, both seasonally, and randomly, which was attributed to variations in ground obseved UV levels, at least back into the late 40s and 50s.
And Ozone is not all that stable as even blue green solar energy can break it down. But to make ozone, you need solar UV, and during the Antarctic winter midnight, the level of solar UV in Antarctica, is generally found to be somewhat less, than during the Antarctic summers. This has been hypothesized to be because of a general lack of solar radiation at those times, despite Trenberth’s insistence that the poles receive 342 W/m^2 all the time.
The ozone layer is relatively thin, since the solar EUV can only penetrate a short distance into the atmosphere before O2 knocks it all out, and forms Ozone.
Free chlorine in the atmosphere is too reactive to survive long enough to get to high altitudes. CFCs being rather stable, can survive till they get high enough for the EUV to break them down and free up the chlorine; well that’s the theory anyway.
I tend to believe that the hole phenomenon is largely natural; but don’t completely discount a CFC effect.
From SAMURAI on October 24, 2012 at 8:25 pm:
Hell is CARB?
Gary Pearse said:
October 24, 2012 at 1:44 pm
…O2 is paramagnetic and is attracted to a mag field, O3 is diamagnetic and is pushed away.
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In a different topic, a Ferd Berple said: “The earth’s magnetic poles are in a period of rapid change, faster than at an time previously observed”.
If all this is true, maybe the hole would follow magnetic south?
How do we know this is good news? Maybe this is unusually small for the last 10 thousand years. Declaring this to be good news is parochial.
barryjo said on October 24, 2012 at 4:11 pm:
Actually the new “Green” refrigerants are propane, iso-butane, and… An old refrigerant needing very high compression with a high outlet temperature that modern technology and materials can now efficiently handle, R744, carbon dioxide.
I found a December 2011 press release from the GreenWar heralding the EPA decision to allow hydrocarbon refrigerants in the US, they’re already used elsewhere.
I’d previously read about CO₂ successfully used as a refrigerant in new appliances in India.
One of the cited benefits for commercial and automotive use, read elsewhere, is a small amount of leakage is tolerable, as these refrigerants have lower global warming potential than current refrigerants thus are safer for the environment, are plentiful and cheap, non-toxic thus are safer for the environment, and are plentiful and cheap.
And of course, ammonia is still in use.
I’d recommend Googling another link for info, as the GreenWar one threw up a “screen cover” about KFC being bad for the rainforest and wanting me to help in the protest. So here it is, late at night, the local KFC is closed, and I really need to counter-protest with some of that “11 herbs and spices” NOW. Dang inconsiderate Green bass-turds.
Well, I see I’m not the only one who’s first thought was small ozone hole/record sea-ice…doesn’t add up.
I’m sure the climate fabricators are busy writing new excuses and deep six’n their old theories.
Er, Mike Wryley:
Freon is R12 … just wondering which EPA humor to look at, R22 or R12…because they’re both a whole lot of exasperating doublespeak.
Ozone is created by UV from the sun. Ozone has a half life of about thirty minutes. For an extended period each year the sun does not shine at the poles. Result is a marked reduction in the ozone during winter in each hemisphere. How come these ozone-depleting gases only work at the poles? /s
More clorine and bromine is produced naturally even through naturally produced CFCs then Clorine by manmade CFCs. The whole theory of destroying the ozone layer by manmade CFCs is a hoax.
When the ozone hole was reported way back in the 70’s by BAS had any previous research found no hole? According to Wilipedia the O3 cycle is started by UV breaking down O2 molecules which combine with other O2 to form the ozone. Ozone is broken down by OH radicals, the most important, and Cl radicals. But removing the Cl will not alter the breakdown by the OH. Neither will any breakdown radicals alter the process of O3 formation which is completely independent of radical presence. We cannot remove the OH radicals since they are caused by the UV breakdown of water molecules.
Sounds to me that there is a natural cyclic process here that we had a wrong leap of faith over.
Funny how the CFC reduction instantly shrank the Hole, despite a 2 decade transit time requirement.
The CFC Protocol was a practice sham gearing up for Decarbonization Fraud.
ferdberple says
The biggest source of chlorine on earth is from dissolved salt in the oceans. Cl2 gasses off in response to Ca capture by Co2, to form CaCo3 – limestone.
The ozone hole is not caused by humans. It is caused by the sun interacting with the earth’s magnetic field at the poles. Otherwise, ozone “depletion” would be concentrated over areas of human chlorine production, rather than at the poles.
Henry @ferdberple, Bill Illis
Agreed. I have been able to figure out the dates: ozone declined from around 1950 and started moving up again from 1995.(more so in the SH than the NH, % wise)
I find a strong correlation with rising maxima when ozone (and others) were going down, also from 1950, and falling maxima when ozone and others are up, from 1995. Curiously, maxima also increased higher than maxima in the NH…..
http://blogs.24.com/henryp/2012/10/02/best-sine-wave-fit-for-the-drop-in-global-maximum-temperatures/
So far, I do not exclude a gravitational or electromagnetic swing/switch that changes the UV coming into earth. In turn this seems to change the chemical reactions of certain chemicals reacting to the UV lying on top of the atmosphere. This change in concentration of chemicals lying on top of us, in turn causes more back radiation (when there is more), hence we are now cooling whilst ozone & others are increasing.
(Bill Illis seemed to have got it the wrong way around)
I am interested to hear your opinion as to what causes this swing/switch, one cycle is ca. 88 years.
I suspect it is just the planets?
Probably silly of me but I have always wondered how a hole that forms in winter, when it’s quite dark down there, can have an effect on beasties living outside the hole but still at a very oblique angle to the suns ultra violet rays.