Earth
ID: 2597
TOMS Ozone at the South Pole: October Averages from 1979 through 2000
Visualizations by
Greg Shirah
Released on October 9, 2002
The year 2000's Antarctic ozone hole is the largest ever observed. Scientists continue to investigate the phenomenon, and are somewhat surprised by its scale. Using data from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument onboard the Earth Probe satellite, researchers can evaluate and compare current conditions over the south pole to readings taken by other instruments in years past. Continued monitoring of polar ozone levels helps researchers gain a better understanding of how the planet's climate may be changing. The following animation shows how ozone loss at the south pole has grown since the mid-80s. Early readings over Antarctica indicate little or no ozone depletion beyond naturally predicted levels. But as the 80s and 90s progress, a clear change in atmospheric chemistry takes place at the bottom of the world. The hole starts small in the late 80s and spreads as subsequent winter cycles break apart ozone molecules.
Visualization Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio
Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2597
Data Used:
Earth Probe/TOMS/Ozone
The month of October, 1979 through 2000.
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Dates of Data Used:
The month of October, 1979 through 2000.
This item is part of this series:
Ozone
Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Chemistry/Oxygen Compounds >> Ozone
GCMD >> Location >> Antarctica
GCMD >> Location >> Stratosphere
NASA Science >> Earth
GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0