A German scientist claims to have discovered the first hole in the ozone layer above the North Pole.
In the last two weeks, the thickness of the ozone layer in the Arctic has been below the thickness of the ozone layer in Antarctica, where the ozone hole is located, said Marcus Rex, head of the department for atmospheric physics at the Alfred-Wegener Institute.
"In zones where the thickness of the ozone layer is at its maximum, the loss is about 90 percent," Rex said.
It is an area three times the size of Greenland. In total, the ozone loss affected an area of 20 million square kilometers, or 10 times the area of Greenland.
According to Rex, this was due to an extremely strong polar vortex this winter and low temperatures in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer is located.
"Currently, these air masses are still accumulated over the Arctic, and that is why people in Europe do not have to worry that they will burn in the sun faster than usual. It is possible that these air masses will float from the central Arctic to Europe in April," the scientist explained.
The production of chlorofluorocarbons, a group of ozone-depleting compounds, was banned many years ago, and without that ban, the ozone layer would be in an even worse state. However, Rex adds that these substances have a long retention time.
The ozone hole over Antarctica, discovered in 1985, seems to be slowly closing. In 2019, it was the lowest in the past 30 years.
We have to protect our planet. Nature has begun to return the blows to us.