Unexpectedly large-scale arctic ozone hole suddenly disappeared



Scientists worried that an unusually large ozone hole suddenly occurred in the Arctic in March 2020, but the European Mid-term Forecast Center suddenly released ozone as suddenly as it did on April 23, 2020. Announced that the hole has disappeared.

The largest Arctic ozone hole ever recorded is now closed-CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arctic-ozone-layer-hole-closed/

North Pole's largest-ever ozone hole finally closes | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/arctic-ozone-hole-closes.html

The earth's atmosphere has an ozone layer with a high concentration of ozone, which absorbs the ultraviolet rays from the sun. However, from around March, the ozone concentration over the Arctic became extremely low, and it was reported that there was an unusual situation where an ozone hole was occurring. According to the European Space Agency, a large ozone hole occurs every fall in Antarctica, but it does not usually occur in the Arctic.

Rare ozone hole opens over Arctic — and it's big
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00904-w



CAMS tracks a record-breaking Arctic ozone hole | Copernicus
https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-tracks-record-breaking-arctic-ozone-hole

However, the Arctic ozone hole ended just as suddenly as it did. The following is how the ozone hole closes.



You can also see from the figure below that the ozone layer is rapidly changing shape around mid April.



Although the pandemic of the new coronavirus has been reported to significantly improve air pollution, researchers have ruled out the association between changes in the ozone hole and pandemics.

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'The European Mid-term Forecast Center will have nothing to do with COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns. The ozone hole is usually associated with long-lasting strong polar circulation , not air quality.' I posted it on Twitter.



According to NASA , Arctic ozone levels were record lows in March 2020. In the Arctic, a similar decrease in ozone concentration was only observed in 1997 and 2011.

The ozone hole was identified in Antarctica in the 1980s after a chemical called chlorofluorocarbon destroyed the ozone layer over the past century. On the other hand, the decrease in ozone concentration in the Arctic, which should normally be high in March-April, is an event that occurs once in 100 years, and was a concern for scientists.

In early April, scientists from the European Space Agency announced that the ozone hole over the Arctic would cover three times more than Greenland . At the same time, scientists also predicted that the ozone hole would disappear as the temperature increased and the polar vortices in the Arctic were destroyed, mixing the atmosphere rich in ozone with the atmosphere with low ozone concentrations.

With the Montreal Protocol's signing in 1987, 197 countries have agreed to phase out chemicals containing chlorofluorocarbons. NASA scientist Paul Newman said 'I don't know the cause' of the change in the ozone layer in 2020, but said, 'If the Montreal Protocol does not stop chlorofluorocarbon emissions, Arctic ozone levels will be lower. It could have been worse. '

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in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log