#ozoneholeclosed

The Ozone Hole Over Arctic Is Now Closed An ozone hole over the Arctic that was the biggest ever recorded there has closed, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). And its start and end have nothing to do with climate change, global warming, or a decrease in air pollution because of the coronavirus. It has to do just with the weather. CAMS observed the very unusual ozone hole that formed over the Arctic this spring and was reported closed April 23. Ozone holes are common over the Antarctic every year, according to CAMS, but "the conditions required for such strong ozone depletion are not usually found in the Northern Hemisphere." The Arctic stratosphere is normally less isolated than its Antarctic counterpart because the presence of nearby landmasses and mountains disturbs the weather patterns more than in the Southern Hemisphere, CAMS reports. This year, an unusually strong polar vortex led to the Arctic ozone hole in which most of the ozone typically found around 11 miles into the stratosphere was depleted, according to CNN. The last time that strong depletion was seen in the Arctic was almost a decade ago. So, why did it occur this year? "The behavior of the ozone and the stratospheric polar vortex through the winter into spring is backed by a couple of research papers," says AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck Read the full article