How large is the Antarctic Ozone Hole?
The maximum size of the Antarctic Ozone Hole reached each year increased rapidly from the early 1980s up until the early 1990s. Since then, however, the maximum area each year has almost always been in between 25 and 30 million square kilometres, the exceptions being the years 2002 and 2004 where it was somewhat less. (For comparison, the area of Australia is 7.7 million square kilometres). The largest areas so far observed have been 30 million square kilometres in 2000 and 29 in 2006. The years 1998, 2003 and 2005 also saw very large holes form.
