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May 19, 2023

Ozone hole over the South Pole on Oct. 5, 2022

A map showing the size and shape of the ozone hole over the South Pole on Oct. 5, 2022. A study found that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10% in 2020.

[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant AGS 1848863.]

Learn more in the NSF Research News story Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer. (Date of image: April 2023; date posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: May 19, 2023)

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens; edited by MIT News


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