When we say planet Earth is healing, we literally mean it.
According to reports, scientists have confirmed that the 1 million square kilometre wide hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic has finally healed. And, apparently the hole over the north pole has healed itself.
The hole in the ozone layer — a portion of Earth's atmosphere that shields the planet from ultraviolet radiation — first opened over the Arctic in late March when unusual wind conditions trapped frigid air over the North Pole for several weeks in a row.
Those winds, known as a polar vortex, created a circular cage of cold air that led to the formation of high-altitude clouds in the region. The clouds mixed with man-made pollutants like chlorine and bromine, eating away at the surrounding ozone gas until a massive hole roughly three times the size of Greenland opened in the atmosphere, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA).
While a large ozone hole opens every autumn over the South Pole, the conditions that allow these holes to form are much rarer in the Northern Hemisphere, the ESA researchers said. The Arctic ozone hole opened this year only because the cold air was concentrated in the area for much longer than is typical.
For now, there's far too little data to say whether Arctic ozone holes like this one represent a new trend.