© Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, ECMWFThe total column ozone field
An ozone hole over the Arctic that was the largest ever recorded there has closed, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). And its beginning and end have nothing to do with climate change, global warming or a reduction in air pollution because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It has to do simply with the weather.
CAMS monitored the rather unusual ozone hole that formed over the Arctic this spring and was reported closed April 23. Ozone holes are more common over the Antarctic every year, according to CAMS, but "the conditions needed for such strong ozone depletion are not normally found in the Northern Hemisphere."
The Arctic stratosphere is usually less isolated than its Antarctic counterpart because the presence of nearby land masses and mountain ranges disturbs the weather patterns more than in the Southern Hemisphere, CAMS reports.
This year, however, a particularly strong polar vortex led to the Arctic ozone hole in which most of the ozone typically found around 11 miles into the stratosphere was depleted, according to CNN. The last time such a strong depletion was observed in the Arctic was almost a decade ago.
So, why did it occur this year?
"The behavior of the ozone and the stratospheric polar vortex during the winter into spring is supported by a couple of research papers," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck. "They state that the coldest and strongest polar vortex in the stratosphere and the lowest concentration of ozone over the Arctic are more likely to occur when you have a combination of a solar minimum, which we are in now, and a westerly QBO [quasi-biennial oscillation, meaning lower stratospheric westerly winds over the equator], which we had from last summer through most of this winter.
"These are all naturally occurring processes," Smerbeck said.
A polar vortex that remained above the polar region without weakening and a strong positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) were among a combination of factors that led the contiguous U.S. to experience higher-than-normal temperatures from December 2019 through February 2020.
"When you have a strong polar vortex that remains in the polar region, it tends to keep frigid air pent up so that it is difficult for long-lasting outbreaks of frigid conditions to reach the middle latitudes, including portions of the Midwest and Northeast," said AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok.
Reader Comments
The stampede occurred at the end of a United Nations Environment Program conference on protecting the ozone layer in Helsinski, Finland, May 1. The insane decision goes much beyond the Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 by 17 nations, which calls for the production of CFCs to be cut in half by 1998. The resolution also agrees to phase out "as soon as feasible" other "ozone-damaging" substances such as halon gas, which is used in fire extinguishers. The resolution is a "declaration of intent" which is to become an enforceable international law during
another climate conference in 1990.
The problem is, the "ozone depletion" scare is a hoax, and this well-orchestrated and -financed campaign to phase out and ban the production of CFCs, some of the most useful chemicals ever known to man, is taking place despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to prove that CFCs are depleting the ozone layer. This author has previously reviewed evidence of the discovery of the "ozone hole" in Antarctica by the foremost researcher of the ozone layer, Gordon Dobson, in 1956, years before man-made CFCs were
in widespread use. Here, we will disprove the claims that CFCs are adding to the destruction of the ozone layer." [Link]
The ozone layer is supposed to have holes in it, especially during the winter current cycle. It is a natural result of the billions of electron volts of current flowing into or out of both of Earth's poles 24/7/365. Ozone cannot exist in such highly energised electrical environments, but is in fact a byproduct of them. The ozone hole is nothing more than the extremely ionised core of a Birkeland current connecting Earth to the Sun.