Envisat data pours cold water on ozone layer recovery theory
New data provided by Envisat, the European Space Agency's Earth observation satellite, has revealed that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is at a near record size, dashing hopes of a speedy recovery. The ozone hole reached its record size of around 30 million square kilometres in 2000. However, measurements taken in 2002 revealed that it had shrunk by some 40 per cent in two years, and had even split in two, sparking theories that the ozone layer was rapidly repairing the damage caused by man made chemicals. The latest data, generated by the Belgian institute for space aeronomy, shows that the two holes have again become one, currently covering an area of some 26 million square kilometres, and that the hole is unlikely to split in two.