The Antarctic ozone layer is showing signs of recovery, reaching an annual maximum of 8.83 million square miles on September 9, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
Even though it's huge, scientists say it's smaller than in many previous years, making it the fifth smallest ozone hole since 1992. NASA and NOAA scientists report that the ozone layer is gradually healing because of the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement that banned chemicals that destroy ozone.
Scientists believe that if the trend continues, the ozone layer is expected to recover later this century fully.
Paul Newman, a senior scientist with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and leader of the ozone research team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said, "As predicted, we're seeing ozone holes trending smaller in area than they were in the early 2000s."
"They're forming later in the season and breaking up earlier. But we still have a long way to go before it recovers to 1980s levels," he added.
This year, during the depletion season between September 7 and October 13, the average size of the hole was 7.23 million square miles. It is the season when the ozone hole is the largest and it starts shrinking after the depletion season.
In 2025, it is breaking up nearly three weeks earlier than usual compared to the past 10 years.
Stephen Montzka, a senior scientist with NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, said, "Since peaking around the year 2000, levels of ozone-depleting substances in the Antarctic stratosphere have declined by about a third, relative to pre-ozone-hole levels."
The ozone layer, located between 7 and 31 miles above the Earth's surface, protects life on the planet by filtering dangerous UV rays.
Ozone depletion occurs when human-made compounds containing chlorine and bromine, once widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners, and refrigerators, rise into the stratosphere.
"This year's hole would have been more than one million square miles larger if there was still as much chlorine in the stratosphere as there was 25 years ago," said Newman.
