Washington: The Antarctic ozone hole expected to reduce in size swiftly when man-made chlorine emissions were outlawed 27 years ago, is remaining the size of North America, new data from Nasa suggests.
The hole in the thin layer of gas, which helps shield life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet solar radiation that can cause skin cancers, grows and contracts throughout the year but reached its maximum extent on September 9 when monitors at the south pole showed it to cover 24.1m sqkm, about 9 percent below the record maximum in 2000 but almost the same as in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
