The most long-lived ozone hole closed over Antarctica

The event was announced at a briefing in Geneva by the official representative of the World Meteorological Organization Claire Nyllis.

“This ozone hole over Antarctica was one of the largest, deepest, and certainly the longest-lived known. It closed at the end of December, which happened much later than usual", - TASS quotes the words of the scientist.

According to the organization, last year the ozone hole over Antarctica “grew rapidly since mid-August and peaked at 24.8 million square kilometres on September 20". Scientists point out that this ozone hole was "the longest, one of the most extensive and deepest since monitoring the ozone layer 40 years ago", to be caused by "a strong, stable and cold polar vortex and very low temperatures in the stratosphere".

Let us recall that according to scientists from the European Atmospheric Monitoring Service Copernicus (Cams), the ozone concentration over Antarctica at an altitude of about 20-25 km dropped to "almost zero values".

"The ozone hole of 2020 resembles the one that was in 2018 - both are large in size, over the past 15 years this is one of the highest rates", - said the head of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Vincent-Henri Poi.