Our new research predicts how Hunga Tonga’s vast underwater eruption in 2022 will change winters worldwide for years to come – as far away as Australia, North America and even Scandinavia.
Four years of persistent ozone holes have sparked concern about what more UV is doing to Antarctic ecosystems.
Concentration of ozone (in Dobson units) as of mid-September 2022, based on measurements by the IASI infrared sounder over 15 years above Antarctica. The extent of damage and geographical distribution of the hole (in blue) varies according to weather conditions.
Anne Boynard/LATMOS
In 1987, the Montreal Protocol established a ban on substances responsible for destroying the ozone layer, which is essential for protection against the sun’s rays.
When solar particles reach the Earth, they not only produce spectacular auroras but also contribute to the chemical reactions leading to ozone depletion, which in turn influences climate patterns.
Temperatures are warming faster in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. Water and sewer pipes in Iqaluit, Nunavut, are cracking during the winter as the ground shifts.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Measurements and modelling have found nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide, are significantly higher than previously reported.
Sunset at Australia’s Cape Grim observatory, one of the key global background monitoring sites for CFC-11.
Paul Krummel/CSIRO
For several years, emissions of CFCs have been rising, in apparent defiance of a global ban in place since 2010. A new global detective effort has traced the source to two eastern Chinese provinces.
Pollution in Shandong province, source of much of the ozone-depleting gas.
Wu Hong / EPA
Almost 30 years ago the world responded to the realisation that our ozone layer was in trouble. The resulting Montreal Protocol was a rare example of global cooperation, but there’s no room for complacency.