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Kathmandu : The largest hole in the Ozone layer spreading over 1 million square kilometres above the Arctic has closed due to unusual atmospheric conditions.
Several feel-good stories about the earth recovering have gone viral since the corona virus pandemic forced the world indoors. Amid this, scientists have confirmed that the largest hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic region has closed in.
Just as suddenly as it first formed, a record-breaking ozone hole has healed. The largest ozone hole to ever open up over the Arctic is now closed, after first opening up earlier this spring.
On April 23, 2020, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), the European Unions’s earth monitoring programmer, announced that the largest hole ever observed in the ozone layer over the Arctic has closed. CAMS has been closely following the one million square km-wide ozone layer hole that had formed over the Arctic in March.
Sharing a post on the twitter, Copernicus ECMWF wrote, “The unpercedented 2020 northern hemisphere #OzoneHole has come to an end. The #PolarVortex split, allowing #ozone-rich air into the Arctic, closely matching last week’s forecast from the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service.”
But, the closing of the hole has nothing to do too with the reduction in levels of pollution amid lockdown. It’s because of the polar vortex, high-altitude currents that are responsible for bringing cold air to polar regions.
Several people on the CAMS twitter handle said the phenomenon is the outcome of the global Covid-19 lock down. The agency then clarified that it has nothing to do with the lock down.
“This Arctic ozone hole actually has nothing to do with coronavirus-related lockdowns, but rather was caused by an unusually strong and long-lived polar bortex,” CAMS tweeted.
CAMS explained the reason behind the ozone layer healing. It said the polar vortex this year has been extremely powerful and temperatures inside ot have been very cold. Scientists, however, said it is still too early to attribute this phenomenon to climate change.
The ozone layer acts like sunscreen for the Earth, protecting life from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The most famous ozone hole is the one that occurs annually in the Antarctic.
