{"id":842,"date":"2023-11-01T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/?p=842"},"modified":"2023-11-02T15:53:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T15:53:06","slug":"2023-ozone-hole-ranks-12th-largest-on-record-find-noaa-and-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/2023\/11\/01\/2023-ozone-hole-ranks-12th-largest-on-record-find-noaa-and-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 ozone hole ranks 12th largest on record, find NOAA and NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
NOAA scientists launch a weather balloon carrying an ozonesonde at the South Pole. Credit: NOAA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By NOAA Communications<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum size at 10 million square miles (26 million square kilometers) on September 21, which ranks as the 12th<\/sup> largest since 1979, according to annual satellite and balloon-based measurements made by NOAA and NASA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the peak of the ozone depletion season from September 7 to October 13, the hole this year averaged 8.9 million square miles (23.1 million square kilometers), approximately the size of North America.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very modest ozone hole,\u201d said Paul Newman, leader of NASA’s ozone research team and chief scientist for Earth sciences at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cDeclining levels of human-produced chlorine compounds, along with help from active Antarctic stratospheric weather slightly improved ozone levels this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ozone layer acts like Earth\u2019s natural sunscreen, as this portion of the stratosphere shields our planet from the sun\u2019s harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. A thinning ozone layer means less protection from UV rays, which can cause sunburns, cataracts and skin cancer in humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every September, the ozone layer thins to form an \u201cozone hole\u201d above the Antarctic continent. Scientists use the term \u201cozone hole\u201d as a metaphor for the area in which ozone concentrations above Antarctica drop well below the historical threshold of 220 Dobson Units. Scientists first reported evidence of ozone depletion in 1985 and have tracked Antarctic ozone levels every year since 1979.

Antarctic ozone depletion occurs when human-made chemicals containing chlorine and bromine first rise into the stratosphere. These chemicals are broken down and release their chlorine and bromine to initiate chemical reactions that destroy ozone molecules. The ozone-depleting chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)<\/a>, were once widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners, fire suppressants and refrigerators. CFCs, the main ozone-depleting gases, have atmospheric lifetimes of 50 to over 100 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough the total column ozone is never zero, in most years, we will typically see zero ozone at some altitudes within the stratosphere over the South Pole,\u201d said NOAA Research Chemist Bryan Johnson, project leader for the Global Monitoring Laboratory\u2019s ozonesonde group. \u201cThis year, we observed about 95% depletion where we often see near 100% loss of ozone within the stratosphere.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Antarctic ozone hole\u2014the total area where ozone amounts are below 220 Dobson units\u2014 on September 21, 2023, the day of its largest extent for the year. The annual maximum extent of the ozone hole in 2023 (light purple bar, measured in millions of square kilometers) compared to all years in the satellite record (dark bars). NOAA Climate.gov image based on NOAA (map) and NASA (graph) satellite data. Credit: NOAA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 1987 Montreal Protocol<\/a> and subsequent amendments banned the production of CFCs and other ozone-destroying chemicals worldwide by 2010. The resulting reduction of emissions has led to a decline in ozone-destroying chemicals<\/a> in the atmosphere and signs of stratospheric ozone recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOAA and NASA researchers monitor the ozone layer over the pole and globally using instruments aboard NASA’s Aura, NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 satellites. Aura\u2019s Microwave Limb Sounder also estimates levels of ozone-destroying chlorine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists also track the average amount of depletion by measuring the concentration of ozone inside the hole. At NOAA\u2019s South Pole Baseline Atmospheric Observatory,<\/a> scientists measure the layer\u2019s thickness by releasing weather balloons carrying ozonesondes<\/a> and by making ground-based measurements with a Dobson spectrophotometer<\/a>. NOAA’s measurements showed a low value of 111 Dobson Units<\/a> over the South Pole on October 3. NASA’s measurements, averaged over a wider area, recorded a low of 99 Dobson Units on the same date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1979, the average concentration above Antarctica was 225 Dobson Units; by 1989, it had plummeted to 127 Dobson Units. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\u2019apai volcano<\/a> \u2014 which violently erupted in January 2022 and blasted an enormous plume of water vapor<\/a> into the stratosphere \u2014 likely contributed to this year\u2019s substantial ozone depletion. That water vapor likely enhanced ozone-depletion reactions over the Antarctic early in the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Hunga Tonga hadn\u2019t gone off, the ozone hole would likely be smaller this year,\u201d Newman said. \u201cWe know the eruption got into the Antarctic stratosphere, but we cannot yet quantify its full impact to the ozone hole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about NOAA\u2019s Antarctic ozone research<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by NOAA Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By NOAA Communications The 2023 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum size at 10 million square miles (26 million square kilometers) on September 21, which ranks as the 12th largest since 1979, according to annual satellite and balloon-based measurements made by NOAA and NASA.  During the peak of the ozone depletion season from September 7 to… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2023\/10\/SP1181-2.jpg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 02:08:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/southpoleozone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}