Ozone hole area, latest season
18.7 10⁶ km²
2025
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Minimum ozone, latest season
138 DU
2025
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Largest area (season mean)
26.6 10⁶ km²
2006
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Lowest ozone measured
92 DU
1994
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Mean ozone hole area, 7 September – 13 October
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Show the data as a table
Minimum total ozone, 21 September – 16 October
Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch) · NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · 10/25/26
Current
Show the data as a table
Method and sources
Yearly statistics of NASA Ozone Watch computed from the TOMS, OMI and OMPS spectrometers, gaps filled with the MERRA, MERRA-2 and GEOS FP reanalyses. The area is the mean, from 7 September to 13 October, of the area where the total ozone column is below 220 Dobson units; the minimum covers 21 September to 16 October.
Chlorine and bromine from CFCs and halons, activated on polar stratospheric clouds, destroy ozone when the Sun returns. The Montreal Protocol (1987) brought these gases down (see the Greenhouse gases page); a first recovery is detected in September (Solomon et al., 2016).
Reading these data
From one year to the next, the area depends mostly on the cold and stability of the polar vortex: a warm winter (2002, 2019) gives a small hole, a cold and lasting vortex a large one (2020, 2023). The Hunga Tonga eruption (2022) may have contributed by adding water vapour. The background trend shows over decades, not over one season.
SOURCES OF THIS PAGE
- Antarctic ozone hole, yearly area and minimum (NASA Ozone Watch)
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NASA Ozone Watch: Antarctic ozone hole area (mean 7 September – 13 October) and minimum total ozone (21 September – 16 October), from TOMS, OMI and OMPS, gaps filled from MERRA, MERRA-2 and GEOS FP.
· source page ↗
Licence : NASA data, public domain; credit NASA Ozone Watch · retrieved on Oct 25, 2026 · SHA-256 bdbd12e5a9c6… - Farman et al. (1985)
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Farman, J. C., Gardiner, B. G., & Shanklin, J. D. (1985). Large losses of total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClOx/NOx interaction. Nature, 315, 207–210.
· doi:10.1038/315207a0
Licence : Published literature; cited - Solomon et al. (2016)
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Solomon, S., Ivy, D. J., Kinnison, D., Mills, M. J., Neely, R. R., & Schmidt, A. (2016). Emergence of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. Science, 353(6296), 269–274.
· doi:10.1126/science.aae0061
Licence : Published literature; cited