19 Facts About Ozone hole

1.

Main causes of ozone depletion and the ozone hole are manufactured chemicals, especially manufactured halocarbon refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents, referred to as ozone-depleting substances .

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2.

Ozone hole levels stabilized by the mid-1990s and began to recover in the 2000s, as the shifting of the jet stream in the southern hemisphere towards the south pole has stopped and might even be reversing.

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3.

Recovery is projected to continue over the next century, and the ozone hole is expected to reach pre-1980 levels by around 2075.

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4.

In 2019, NASA reported that the ozone hole was the smallest ever since it was first discovered in 1982.

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5.

Ozone hole is formed in the stratosphere when oxygen gas molecules photodissociate after absorbing UVC photons.

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6.

Ozone hole can be destroyed by a number of free radical catalysts; the most important are the hydroxyl radical, nitric oxide radical, chlorine radical and bromine radical .

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7.

Ozone hole is a highly reactive molecule that easily reduces to the more stable oxygen form with the assistance of a catalyst.

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8.

Ozone hole is usually measured by reduction in the total column ozone above a point on the Earth's surface.

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9.

In 2017, NASA announced that the ozone hole was the weakest since 1988 because of warm stratospheric conditions.

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10.

Ozone hole depletion explains much of the observed reduction in stratospheric and upper tropospheric temperatures.

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11.

Antarctic ozone hole is an area of the Antarctic stratosphere in which the recent ozone levels have dropped to as low as 33 percent of their pre-1975 values.

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12.

The ozone hole was seen as a "hot issue" and imminent risk as laypeople feared severe personal consequences such as skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants, and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean's photic zone.

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13.

Main public concern regarding the ozone hole has been the effects of increased surface UV radiation on human health.

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14.

That same year, the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole was announced, causing a revival in public attention to the issue.

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15.

In 2019, the ozone hole was at its smallest in the previous thirty years, due to the warmer polar stratosphere weakening the polar vortex.

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16.

However, these were initially rejected as unreasonable by data quality control algorithms ; the ozone hole was detected only in satellite data when the raw data was reprocessed following evidence of ozone depletion in in situ observations.

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17.

The Ozone hole reached its maximum size for the season on Sept 22, stretching to 21.

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18.

The ozone hole has influenced atmospheric circulation all the way to the tropics and increased rainfall at low, subtropical latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.

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19.

Also again in 2011 an ozone hole appeared over mountainous regions of Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai and the Hindu Kush, along with an unprecedented hole over the Arctic, though the Tibet one is far less intense than the ones over the Arctic or Antarctic.

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