At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 per cent of the upper ozone layer was depleted, said Newman. Since 2000, it has increased by about 1 to 3 per cent per decade, the report said.

Here’s a rare piece of good news about the environment: The giant hole in the Earth’s protective ozone layer is shrinking and has shrivelled to its smallest peak since 1988, NASA scientists said.

This loss peaked at up to 4 per cent ozone over the north pole in mid-summer. Running their model with even higher emissions, from a 30-fold and 100-fold increase in launches, resulted in even ...

The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone. The hole in the ozone layer was discovered 40 years ago, in May 1985.© NASA ...

A false-color view of ozone over Antarctica is seen in an image released in 2012. The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone.

The ozone layer is a blanket of ozone - a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms - which wraps around the entire planet. This gas layer in the upper atmosphere absorbs harmful UVB radiation from ...

At its largest point this year the ozone layer hole was 8.5 million square miles (22.4 million square kilometres) on September 28. This is 1.5 million square miles smaller than the peak size in 2023 ...

In the 1980s, scientists found a hole in the ozone over Antarctica that was caused by chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are found in aerosol cans, refrigerators and other common ...

A UN report suggests the ozone layer is healing itself — thanks in large part to the Montreal Protocol signed three decades ago. The news is giving activists hope that in the fight against ...

“By 2050, we should be back to relatively normal ozone, but things like the continued emissions of methyl bromide and methyl chloride are bumps in the road to recovery,” Rhew said.