Ozone Hole Evolution

Appearance and subsequent evolution of the “Ozone Hole” shown in the evolution of the Earth’s total ozone column, season by season from 1970 to 2023. This compilation traces the otherwise strongly seasonal evolution of the ozone layer using monthly (here only shown is September) gridded satellite data (some years are missing due to gaps in observational coverage). Each frame shows the total amount of ozone in the atmospheric column above every point on the globe, measured in Dobson Units (DU).

Ozone (O₃) makes up a tiny fraction of the atmosphere, but the layer concentrated in the stratosphere (roughly 15–35 km up) absorbs the vast majority of the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation, shielding life on the Earth’s surface from UV damage. Starting in the 1970s–80s, industrial chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), once common in refrigerants and aerosols, built up in the stratosphere and triggered a dramatic seasonal depletion of ozone over Antarctica: the now-famous “Ozone Hole”.

In 1987, the world responded with the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty phasing out CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances. It remains one of the most successful environmental agreements in history: every United Nations member state ratified it, and atmospheric concentrations of these chemicals have been declining ever since.

Since the 2000s, the ozone hole has stopped growing and shows measurable signs of recovery. Full healing is a slow process, though and progress isn’t perfectly linear. Year-to-year variability from polar vortex dynamics, atmospheric circulation, and occasional shocks like volcanic eruptions still cause some years’ holes to be deeper or shallower than the long-term trend would suggest.

Data is from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (2022) and the Scientific colour map ‘davos‘ is used to represent the data accurately and to all readers. For an animated version of this graphic, see Ozone Layer Evolution.

• Creator: Fabio Crameri
• This version: 15.08.2026
• License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri using data from Copernicus Climate Change Service is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
• Related reference: Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2020): Ozone monthly gridded data from 1970 to present derived from satellite observations. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.4ebfe4eb (Accessed on 14-Aug-2026)

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