Antarctica's ozone hole may not be mending as well as we thought, study says
Antarctica's ozone hole may not be mending as well as we thought, study says
New Zealand researchers say changing weather dynamics could be influencing the formation of larger holes in Antarctica's ozone layer, but others debate the new study's findings.
Seems more related to air movement maybe than depletion of ozone. Still, the possibility is a bummer
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Since ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were banned from manufacturing in 1987, it's been thought the ozone layer — which sits between 15 and 30 kilometres above Antarctica — has been slowly but surely bouncing back.
But in a study in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Otago suggest the hole's repair isn't as pronounced as we thought, and the swirling mass of cold air around the South Pole might be involved in its delayed recovery.
A decade before the hole was confirmed in the 1980s, scientists discovered chemicals used in aerosols and fridges could deplete Earth's ozone layer, which protects us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.
The hole, which grows in August every year before shrinking again in December, can modify wind and rain patterns and contribute to drier conditions in places like Australia.
This drop was linked to changes in the mesosphere — the atmospheric layer above the stratosphere — when it descends into the area of rotating cold air around the South Pole called the polar vortex.
Professor Chipperfield also noted the research used an instrument on NASA satellite Aura which would be decommissioned in coming years without a plan for replacement.
The original article contains 736 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!