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Ozone Hole in 2008 is Larger Than Last Year
Ozone is a protective atmospheric layer found in about 25 kilometers altitude that acts as a sunlight filter shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays, which can increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts and harm marine life.
The depletion of ozone is caused by extreme cold temperatures at high altitude and the presence of ozone-destructing gases in the atmosphere such as chlorine and bromine, originating from man-made products like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol but continue to linger in the atmosphere.
This year, the area of the thinned ozone layer over the South Pole reached about 27 million square kilometers, compared to 25 million square kilometers in 2007 and a record ozone hole extension of 29 million square kilometers in 2006, which is about the size of the North American continent.
Depending on the weather conditions, the size the Antarctic ozone hole varies every year.
During the southern hemisphere winter, the atmosphere above the Antarctic continent is kept cut off from exchanges with mid-latitude air by prevailing winds known as the polar vortex - the area in which the main chemical ozone destruction occurs.
The polar vortex is characterized by very low temperatures leading to the presence of so-called stratospheric clouds (PSCs).
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