The Largest Arctic Ozone Hole Ever Recorded is Now Closed
Scientists monitoring the "unprecedented" hole at the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) announced the closure last week. Despite coronavirus lockdowns leading to a significant reduction in air pollution, researchers said the pandemic likely was not the reason for the ozone hole closing. "Actually, COVID19 and the associated lockdowns probably had nothing to do with this," CAMS tweeted Sunday. "It's been driven by an unusually strong and long-lived polar vortex, and isn't related to air quality changes." Now that the intense polar vortex has ended, the ozone hole has closed. CAMS said Monday that it does not expect the same conditions to occur next year.
Scientists monitoring the "unprecedented" hole at the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) announced the closure last week. Despite coronavirus lockdowns leading to a significant reduction in air pollution, researchers said the pandemic likely was not the reason for the ozone hole closing. "Actually, COVID19 and the associated lockdowns probably had nothing to do with this," CAMS tweeted Sunday. "It's been driven by an unusually strong and long-lived polar vortex, and isn't related to air quality changes." Now that the intense polar vortex has ended, the ozone hole has closed. CAMS said Monday that it does not expect the same conditions to occur next year.
