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“The eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in January 2022 injected a lot of water vapour into the stratosphere which only reached the south polar regions after t
by dbetteridge 3y ago
“The eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in January 2022 injected a lot of water vapour into the stratosphere which only reached the south polar regions after the end of the 2022 ozone hole.
“The water vapour could have led to the heightened formation of polar stratospheric clouds, where chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) can react and accelerate ozone depletion. The presence of water vapour may also contribute to the cooling of the Antarctic stratosphere, further enhancing the formation of these polar stratospheric clouds and resulting in a more robust polar vortex.”
Sounds like more of a natural expansion of the human created phenomenon, hopefully temporary
- Enginerrrd 3y agoPersonally I suspect someone is cheating on their emissions, or using something that's a bit cheaper but is ozone damaging in some process.
- 83 3y agoIts pretty well documented someone is producing cfcs. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48353341 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48353341
- 6th 3y agoFunny that article doesn't mention https://research.noaa.gov/2022/03/09/two-additional-regions-of-asia-were-sources-of-banned-ozone-destroying-chemicals/ https://research.noaa.gov/2022/03/09/two-additional-regions-... Were they just asleep?
- brutusborn 3y agoThe only reason I can think of is to avoid diplomatic problems. When scientific reporting doesn’t make sense it is either due to ignorance or politics, and I doubt the ESA has an issue with ignorance.
- 6th 3y agoSure, and there goes any credibility they had. Could have just stated the facts, not even written any of the "Why is the ozone hole so big?" section. Had they presented facts from their space-borne instruments, analyzed said data honestly, no leading thoughts - would have been plenty; they'd have an interesting article and more importantly not lied (or seen to) to our faces.
- samtho 3y agoIt does take many years (in the timeframe of decades) for CFCs and other ozone depleting molecules to reach a point where they do damage as it’s heavier than air. 2010 was only 13-14 years ago at this point and those gasses have mostly not made it up that high yet. We won’t know the full scale of the damage that this has done for another 5-15 years. What we are seeing now is a separate event that had likely originated with excessive, high-altitude water vapor being blasted into the sky due to volcanic activity.
- 6th 3y agoWell, if that's the case, I guess I do owe them an apology. I can accept that it is fact I that doesn't know full the situation, to know that we're still yet to feel the effect of all that - that really sucks