A large hole appeared in the ozone layer over the Arctic, one of the largest recorded in the area.
The expansive hole was caused by cold temperatures in the atmosphere above the North Pole. Clouds then formed in the atmosphere, allowing gases to interact with ultraviolet rays to produce ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorine and bromine atoms.
Scientists say such an event in the Arctic is uncommon.
“It’s an unusual event,” Paul Newman, the chief scientist for earth sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told NBC News. “There is some Arctic ozone depletion every year, but it’s more extreme in 2020 than in most years.”
“If the situation right now in the Arctic was over Antarctica in September or October, we would be saying that the ozone hole is gone — that’s how big of a difference we’re talking about,” he continued. “This is unusual for the Arctic, but it’s not at all comparable to the Antarctic ozone hole.
Meanwhile, Vincent-Henri Peuch, the director of the European Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, described the hole as a “geophysical curiosity.”
“We monitored unusual dynamic conditions, which drive the process of chemical depletion of ozone. Those dynamics allowed for lower temperatures and a more stable vortex than usual over the Arctic, which then triggered the formation of polar stratospheric clouds and the catalytic destruction of ozone,” he told the Guardian.
The hole is not expected to cause any harm to humans. However, should it move further south into populated areas, people could be subjected to increased risks of sunburn.
