The hole in the ozone layer was the fifth-smallest since 1992, keeping it on track for recovery later this century, Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have reported.
The NOAA-Nasa report, released this week, credits this success to an international agreement signed in 1992 to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals that had been widening the hole over the Antarctic.
The hole in the ozone layer varies in size throughout the year. However, at the height of this year’s depletion season, from early September through mid-October, the average extent of the hole was about 18.71 million square kilometres, the NOAA-Nasa said. This was about 30 per cent smaller than the largest hole ever observed in 2006.
“Since peaking around the year 2000, levels of ozone-depleting substances in the Antarctic stratosphere have declined by about a third, relative to pre-ozone-hole levels,” said Stephen Montzka, a senior s
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