How big is the ozone hole 2011?

Answer 1

2006 was the record size of the Antarctic ozone hole at 27 million square kilometers (10.6 million square miles), roughly centered on the South pole. That area was the size of North America.

The ozone hole on September 12, 2011 was 26 million square km, and was increasing. This data is captured by the NASA's OMI satellite. This thinning of the ozone layer, the "hole", is already larger than it was in 2009 and 2010.

The North Pole's hole is always smaller than the hole at the South Pole (as the magnetic field provides), and so is not routinely monitored.

The ozone hole over Antarctica starts forming in late May - and is usually "healed" by December. The ozone hole over the North pole occurs when it is winter at the North pole, and is smaller than the Antarctic hole. See the link below for current information. Data from NASA's Earth-observing Aura satellite show that the ozone hole peaked in size on Sept. 13, 2007 reaching a maximum area extent of 9.7 million square miles (24.7 million sq. km) ­ just larger than the size of North America. That's "pretty average," says Paul Newman, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Fight Center, when compared to the area of ozone holes measured over the last 15 years. Still, the extent this year was "very big," he says, compared to 1970s when the size of the hole was not known. The current record size of the ozone hole (2006) is 10.6 million square miles, roughly centered on the South pole. The area of the Asian continent is just 17.2 million square miles. The size of the hole in the ozone layer varies with the seasons. Discovered in 1985 by a team of British scientists, it increases at winter time when, during a period of two to three months, around 50% of the total column amount of ozone in the atmosphere disappears. At some levels in the polar stratosphere, the losses approach 90%. The depletion of the ozone layer is most obvious over the Antarctic. It covered a populated city for the first time in 2000. Beginning on 9 September 2000 and continuing to September 10th, the ozone hole covered about 29.7 million square km, about three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States. Approximately 120,000 residents of Punta Arenas, a city in southern Chile, were exposed to very high levels of ultra violet radiation. After reaching this peak, the hole then began to slowly shrink again in its usual fashion.

Answer 2

The ozone hole is pretty big. It keeps on increasing by the use of CFC's.

Answer 3

The ozone hole was pretty big in 2011. However its size was reduced from previous years.