Largest-Ever Antarctic Ozone Hole

September 2000 Antarctic ozone depletion rates are unprecedented. NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data shows huge white hole over the South Pole devoid of ozone and severe thinning over the entire Antarctic continent and the tip of South America. Graphic courtesy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

September 10, 2000 Greenbelt, Maryland - The ozone hole over the Antarctic is the biggest it's ever been and it's only the beginning of September. Usually Antarctic ozone depletion starts in July during the South Pole's winter. That's when extremely cold air intensifies ozone destruction, reaching a peak by the end of September and into October. But this year, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland reports that already the ozone hole is larger than all of the Antarctic and extends over the southern tip of South America. That's 11 million square miles and breaks all previous records. A spokesman at the United Nations World Meteorological Observation agency in Geneva, Switzerland told reporters: "It is remarkable to find these low values so early in September, perhaps one or two weeks earlier than in any previous year."

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