A new study by New Zealand scientists from the University of Otago in Dunedin, presented in Nature Communications, indicates that since 2004 the ozone layer over Antarctica has decreased by 26%. It is noted that the data obtained by the researchers contradict the previously identified trend of recovery in the ozone hole.
Every mid-spring, which is September in the Northern Hemisphere, the ozone layer over Antarctica thins. It does not disappear completely, but its concentration drops below certain levels, creating an ozone hole. Experts previously found indications that there was a 20 per cent decrease in ozone thinning during the winter months between 2005 and 2016, and they predicted that the hole would recover by 2040.
The New Zealanders, for their part, analysed changes in ozone from 2001 to 2022 by examining different layers of the stratosphere during the key period from September to November, when the ozone layer is thinnest. When the scientists examined satellite data from last year, they found that the recovery trend had completely disappeared.
