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Spring 2020 brings rare ozone 'hole' over the Arctic

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NOAA satellites observed an ozone hole developing over the Arctic March 10, 2020. In this snapshot, places where ozone amounts are less than 280 Dobson Units are shown in red.

5 questions answered about this year's record-small ozone hole

October 22, 2019

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The seasonal Antarctic ozone hole—the area where the ozone concentration drops below 220 Dobson units—reached its peak area on September 8, 2019. In these NOAA satellite images from August 31–September 8 (upper left to bottom right), places with high ozone levels are bright blue, while the ozone hole is dark blue and deep red. (NOAA Climate.gov image, based on daily TOAST data processed by NOAA's Environmental Visualization Lab.)

The 2019 ozone hole is the smallest ever recorded

October 21, 2019

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Sept. 9, 2019: A time-lapse image of NOAA staff at the South Pole launching a weather balloon fitted with an ozonesonde that measures vertical concentrations of ozone inside the ozone hole.

Who’s the source of a banned ozone-destroying chemical?

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Air samples from NOAA's Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory provided the first evidence of new production of the ozone-destroying chemical CFC-11, in violation of the Montreal Protocol. A new study in Nature pinpoints the source of these emissions to two provinces in China.

Ozone hole could've been a big one this year – but it wasn’t

November 2, 2018

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The view of total ozone over the Antarctic pole from October 24, 2018. The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone.

Photo feature: A ‘welcoming’ sun returns to the South Pole

September 28, 2018

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Early colors of a rising sun approach the horizon behind NOAA's Atmospheric Research Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, September 8, 2018.

Emissions of an ozone-destroying chemical are rising again

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Going, going, gone: A NOAA weather balloon floats into the pre-dawn Antarctic sky over the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in this time-lapse photograph taken September 15, 2017. The balloon was carrying an ozonesonde -- instrument to measure ozone during NOAA's annual monitoring of the Antarctic ozone hole. Rising emissions of a strictly regulated chemical threatens recovery of the ozone hole, according to new NOAA research published in the journal Nature, May 16, 2018.

Study: People in parts of U.S. and beyond breathe unhealthy ozone pollution more than 2 weeks a year

February 5, 2018

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Ground-level ozone in the form of smog, shown here in Denver, Colorado, is a growing problem in the western United States and elsewhere around the world.

Warm air helped keep 2017 Antarctic ozone hole smallest in 29 years

November 2, 2017

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climate science

This time-lapse photo shows the path of an ozonesonde as it rises into the atmosphere in the South Pole. Scientists release these balloon-borne sensors to measure the thickness of the ozone layer.

Ozone treaty taking a bite out of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions

August 14, 2017

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greenhouse gases

A NOAA researcher prepares to release an ozone sonde at the South Pole in this 2008 photo.

Possible new threat to Earth’s ozone layer

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Researchers release a weather balloon carrying an ozone sonde (airborne instrument) during the 2016 ozone hole research season at the South Pole.

Fifty years ago, a historic balloon launch that changed the way we see the ozone layer

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CIRES scientist Patrick Cullis releases a weather balloon carrying an ozonesonde from NOAA's Marshall Mesa on the 50th anniversary of the first ozonesonde launch from the research site near Boulder, Colorado, in 1967.

Rural West sees more smog; now scientists may know why

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Ground-level ozone in the form of smog, shown here in Denver, Colorado, is a growing problem in the western United States and elsewhere around the world.

Size of 2016 Antarctic ozone hole is nearly average, as expected

October 26, 2016

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climate science

Researchers release a weather balloon carrying an ozone sonde, a lightweight sensor, during the 2016 ozone hole research season at the South Pole.

Photo: Collecting data on Utah’s winter ozone problem, 'MacGyver'-style

September 19, 2016

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When winter winds die down in Utah’s remote Uinta Basin, oil and gas emissions and sunlight reflected off of snow cover can produce dramatic spikes of ozone pollution over the course of a few hours, a NOAA study has found.

NOAA, CIRES researchers track lingering U.S. emissions of ozone-depleting chemical

February 29, 2016

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This image of the southern hemisphere shows the ozone hole that typically forms over the South Pole during the austral spring.

New study explains wintertime ozone pollution in Utah oil and gas fields

October 1, 2014

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