NOAA and NASA report an unusually large Antarctic ozone hole in 2026
1 min readAccording to NOAA and NASA scientists, atypical weather caused the Antarctic ozone hole to grow to an unusually large size in 2026. The protective ozone layer remained on track to recover by later this century.
The 2026 ozone hole became the seventh-largest in 48 years of monitoring, based on NOAA and NASA analysis of the seasonal mean area. A powerful polar vortex extended ozone depletion during the season, but scientists said the hole would have been larger if levels of ozone-destroying chemicals had not been reduced through international cooperation.
During peak ozone depletion season between September 7 and October 13, 2026, the average extent of the hole covered about 9.6 million square miles (25 million square kilometers). The hole reached its greatest extent for the year on September 18 at 10.5 million square miles (27.1 million square kilometers).
Paul Newman, a senior scientist at the University of Maryland and longtime leader of NASA's ozone research team at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center, said the annual ozone hole has been forming later in the season in recent years, indicating that the ozone layer is healing. He said the unusually powerful polar vortex extended ozone depletion in the Antarctic.
NOAA scientists found that ozone concentrations directly overhead reached their lowest value for the year, 105 Dobson units, on October 17. The lowest value ever recorded over the South Pole was 92 Dobson units in October 2006. The depletion within the hole was not as severe as record-breaking holes that occurred 10 or 20 years ago.
NOAA and NASA scientists said controls established by the Montreal Protocol in 1987 continue to drive long-term recovery of stratospheric ozone. Stephen Montzka, senior scientist at NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, said chlorine levels in the Antarctic stratosphere derived from ozone-depleting substances have declined by about a third relative to levels reached in the 1980s. Scientists estimate the ozone hole will recover by the 2070s.
