Name: Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole
Brand: livescience.com
SKU: livescience-com-15
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole

preview

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Scientists have detected what may be the largest hole in the ever recorded over the North Pole.The ozone hole covers an area roughly three times the size of , scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) , and could expose people living at far northern latitudes to high levels of ultraviolet radiation if it grows much larger. Fortunately, the hole looks likely to close on its own in the next few weeks, the ESA researchers said.Holes form in the ozone layer — which is a sheet of gas in Earth's atmosphere that absorbs much of the harmful emitted by the sun — every year over due to seasonal changes in cloud cover. Ozone holes over the Arctic, however, are rarer. The last time an Arctic ozone hole opened was in 2011, and it was significantly smaller than the hole seen now, the researchers said."From my point of view, this is the first time you can speak about a real ozone hole in the Arctic," Martin Dameris, an atmospheric scientist at the German Aerospace Center, .Related: The Antarctic ozone hole opens every year due to the combination of frigid temperatures and man-made pollution. When temperatures plummet at the start of Antarctica's winter, high-altitude clouds form over the South Pole. Industrial chemical pollutants, including and, trigger reactions in these clouds that eat away at the surrounding ozone gas.The Arctic, which has more variable temperatures, doesn't usually see the same ozone-depleting conditions, the researchers said. But this year, powerful winds trapped cold air in a "" above the Arctic. &nbsp;That led to colder temperatures and more high-altitude clouds than normal. Hence, North Pole ozone-depletion began.Fortunately, with the sun slowly getting higher over the Arctic, atmospheric temperatures are already beginning to increase, which means the conditions causing the ozone hole should soon change, the researchers said. However, if the hole continues to expand south, Arctic residents — like those living in southern Greenland — may need to apply sunscreen to prevent UV damage.The much larger Antarctic ozone hole will remain a seasonal feature, as it has for roughly four decades, though that hole has begun shrinking in size. A 2018 assessment by the found that the southern ozone hole has been shrinking by about 1% to 3% per decade since the year 2000, with the 2019 hole measuring since 1982. The shrinking of the southern ozone hole is thanks largely to a global ban on ozone-depleting chemicals initiated in 1987, though some key nations still do not appear to be participating. According to a, factories in China still appeared to be pumping large quantities of ozone-depleting chemicals into the atmosphere.Originally published on .For a limited time, you can take out a digital subscription to any of for just $2.38 per month, or 45% off the standard price for the first three months.Show more commentsStay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.Thank you for signing up to Live Science. You will receive a verification email shortly.There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.MOST READMOST SHARED1234512345

Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. .Scientists have detected what may be the largest hole in the ever recorded over the North Pole.The ozone hole covers an area roughly three times the size of , scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) , and could expose people living at far northern latitudes to high levels of ultraviolet radiation if it grows much larger. Fortunately, the hole looks likely to close on its own in the next few weeks, the ESA researchers said.Holes form in the ozone layer — which...

public

Brandon Specktor 

Science news covering top stories of the day in health, environment, animals, technology and space. Part of @FuturePLC

https://twitter.com/LiveScience?cmpid=556688

livescience.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS