[cogitator]

There is no "hole." There is a "thinning" or depletion of the ozone layer.

This is caused by the low amount of sunlight in Anartica during its winter, since sunlight causes oxygen to ionize into ozone.

This has nothing to do with CFC's or Freon, but a lot to do with sunlight.

You are incorrect on this subject. The "ozone hole" refers to drastically lowered ozone concentrations in the Antarctic stratosphere above the winter polar vortex, due to the reactions of chlorine with ozone that are catalytically enhanced on ice crystals in polar clouds.

If you would really like to "get science", I recommend this outstanding Web site on the subject:

The Ozone Hole Tour. Part 3, "The Science of the Ozone Hole", will be of particular interest to you.

[jscd3]

Actually, I think that ido_now is correct. Not looking for a fight, but atmospheric mixing between the northern and southern hemisphere is very limited. Since almost all sources and uses of CFCs and Freon are in the northern hemisphere, normal atmospheric transport would concentrate these chemicals at the North pole, not the South pole. The fact that there is thinning at the South and not at the North is a pretty strong indicator that Man has nothing to do with it.

Now there is a very strong correlation between volvanic avtivity and ozone thinning in the respective hemisphere, particularly if the valvanoes in question are very active and generate a lot of chlorine. Measurable ozone thinning in the north did occurr, for example, after the very large Mt Pinatubo eruption. It just happens that the most active volcanoe in the world is Mt Erabus in, you guessed it, Antarctica. It's been more or less continuously erupting for decades.

[Old Professer]

One of the researchers who was at JPL in 1992 told me on the phone that the hole would grow larger until one day all the ozone would be gone from the upper atmosphere; he said it was too late to do anything about it.

I wish I could remember his name.