The ozone hole on September 3, 2000 was the largest ever
| On September 3, 2000, NASA's TOMS-EP satellite observed that the Antarctic ozone hole was three times larger than the entire landmass of the United States. On that date, the ozone hole measured about 28.3 million square kilometers (about 11 million square miles). This exceeded the previous record of 27.2 million square km set on September 19, 1998. Ozone usually occurs between 9.5 and 29 km up in the atmosphere. While production of ozone-destroying gases has been reduced in recent years, their concentrations are reaching peak levels now at these high layers of the atmosphere. These ozone-destroying gases stay in the atmosphere a long time. As a result, we will be observing the ozone hole for many years to come. |
Credit: Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument on NASA's Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite, NASA
For more info: http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov