South Pole's ozone hole shrinks to smallest since discovery

摘要

The ozone hole near the South Pole this year is the smallest since it was discovered, but it is due more tofreakish Antarctic weather than to efforts to cut down on pollution, NASA reported.This fall, the average hole in Earth's protective ozone layer is 3.6 million square miles. That's down from a peakof 10.3 million square miles in 2006.This year's hole is even smaller than the one first discovered in 1985."That's really good news," NASA scientist Paul Newman said yesterday. "That means more ozone over thehemisphere, less ultraviolet radiation at the surface."