Intense cold in the upper atmosphere of the Arctic last winter activated ozone-depleting chemicals and produced the first significant ozone hole recorded over the high northern regions, scientists reported Monday in the journal Nature.
While the extent of the ozone depletion is considered temporary, atmospheric scientists described it as a striking example of how sudden anomalies can occur as a result of human activity that occurred years ago.
“The root cause is the residual products from the CFCs that were released throughout the 20th century,” said Michelle L. Santee, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the paper’s authors. “But they are very long-lived, and it will take a few decades for them to be cleansed from the atmosphere.”
