2026 Ozone Hole Update

Narration:

Transcript:

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The 2026 ozone hole over the Antarctic

was one of the largest observed in over 48 years of monitoring.

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Contained within a powerful polar vortex,

it had an average extent of 9.6 million square miles,

making it the 7th largest ozone hole since NASA started tracking it in 1979.

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The greatest one-day extent for the year was on

Sept. 18 at 10.5 million square miles

(27.1 million square kilometers).

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That’s about 90% as large as the largest ozone hole ever observed.

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While this year’s hole was large in surface area,

it was not as deep as other large holes on record.

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Earth’s protective ozone layer remains on track to

recover by later this century