Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
It doesn't normally get cold enough in the lower Arctic stratosphere to trigger an ozone hole. The winter of 2019-20 was a different story. This animation shows daily ozone levels observed by NOAA satellite from January 1-April 18, 2020. Places where ozone values are less than 280 Dobson Units are red. In early winter, pockets of low-ozone air from lower latitudes are occasionally swept up into the polar vortex, part of the normal winter circulation. These pockets of low ozone are short-lived, quickly mixed into the rest of the ozone-rich polar stratosphere (blue areas). But beginning in mid-February, a pocket of red begins to develop *inside* the Arctic--the result of CFC-related ozone depletion. Read more about the climate conditions leading up to this rare event @ climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/spring-2020-brings-rare-ozone-%E2%80%9Chole%E2%80%9D-arctic
Video produced by NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab and Climate.gov. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Climate.gov video productions can be freely republished or re-purposed by others.
It doesn't normally get cold enough in the lower Arctic stratosphere to trigger an ozone hole. The winter of 2019-20 was a different story. This animation shows daily ozone levels observed by NOAA satellite from January 1-April 18, 2020. Places where ozone values are less than 280 Dobson Units are red. In early winter, pockets of low-ozone air from lower latitudes are occasionally swept up into the polar vortex, part of the normal winter circulation. These pockets of low ozone are short-lived, quickly mixed into the rest of the ozone-rich polar stratosphere (blue areas). But beginning in mid-February, a pocket of red begins to develop *inside* the Arctic--the result of CFC-related ozone depletion. Read more about the climate conditions leading up to this rare event @ climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/spring-2020-brings-rare-ozone-%E2%80%9Chole%E2%80%9D-arctic
Video produced by NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab and Climate.gov. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Climate.gov video productions can be freely republished or re-purposed by others.
