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The ozone hole reached its largest size of the year on Oct. 2, 2015.(Photo: NASA)
Decades after the fog from hairspray and deodorant cans dissipated in a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>worldwide ban, the results are finally paying off for the Earth's protective layer:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The ozone hole over the Antarctic is beginning to heal, a new study finds.
Located<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the stratosphere, the ozone layer blocks potentially harmful ultraviolet energy from reaching our planet's surface. Without it, humans and animals could experience<span style="color: Red;">*</span>increased rates of skin cancer and other ailments.
Researchers found<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the hole shrunk by more than 1.5 million square miles<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— about half the area of the contiguous United States —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>since 2000, when ozone depletion was at its peak.
“It’s a big surprise,” said Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead author of the study published<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Thursday in the journal<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Science. “I didn’t think it (the healing)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would be this early.”
The discovery<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shows global attempts to improve Earth's environment can work, providing a template for how humanity could tackle the exponentially larger issue of climate change, Solomon said.?
The hole won't completely close for at least 30 years at the earliest<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but is opening up just a little bit less almost every year,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Solomon said.
USA TODAY
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Scientists first discovered the gaping dramatic thinning in Earth's protective sheet in the late 1950s and determined<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in refrigerators and aerosol sprays, caused the anomaly. In the late 1980s, 196<span style="color: Red;">*</span>countries signed the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Montreal Protocol, a treaty that limited<span style="color: Red;">*</span>production of CFCs around the world.
The hole fluctuates in size from year to year and tends to be its largest<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after winter, which runs June to August<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the Southern Hemisphere, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>smallest after summer, December to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>February. The hole usually extends to its largest diameter in September or October. Scientists in this study said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the best time to measure it is in September, when it's most influenced by the CFCs.
Scientists also discovered that last year's record large ozone hole in October was a fluke<span style="color: Red;">*</span>mainly caused by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a volcanic eruption in Chile six months earlier that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>temporarily disrupted the atmosphere's chemistry to such a degree that the hole extra-enlarged.
Results of a new study show that the Montreal Protocol’s efforts to control ozone-depleting substancesare helping to “heal” the Antarctic ozone hole.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Pixabay / Creative Commons)
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