Source: Thomas Pagano, NASA-JPL/Caltech
Published: August 9, 2021

The 2020 ozone hole was one of the largest and longest lasting ozone holes on record. In this animation, created solely with observed data from NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft, color represents the ozone concentration in the total column, with yellow representing high concentrations of ozone and blue representing low concentrations in Dobson Units (DU) as identified by the colorbar. (One Dobson unit being equivalent to a layer of pure ozone 0.01 mm thick at standard temperature and pressure). Each frame represents 12 hours of data acquired from the AIRS instrument. Ozone color is mapped on a transparent surface placed at height above the surface consistent with an ozone concentration of 5 x 10-7 Volume Mixing Ratio (VMR) (number of molecules of ozone per molecule of air). The isosurface is scaled by a factor of 100 to enhance the features. The animation flies in and swings by the ozone hole giving a closer look at the isosurface around the ozone hole. The transparency eventually turns clear when the ozone concentration drops below 150 DU. As the animation flies away, we still see an extended period of deep blue as the ozone hole continues through the end of November.