Measurements of atmospheric ozone from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite are now being used in daily forecasts of air quality.

High up in the stratosphere, ozone is important because it protects life on Earth from the Sun’s harmful rays of ultraviolet radiation. In the 1970s and 1980s, the widespread use of damaging chlorofluorocarbons in products such as refrigerators and aerosol tins damaged ozone high up in our atmosphere. This depletion led to a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. While the ozone layer may be healthier than it was, it is critical that it continues to be carefully monitored – not just to look back at its history, but also to see how it changes in the future. The Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission is set to play an important role in monitoring ozone. Using data from the mission, this animation show changes in ozone over Antarctica between 1 November and 20 November 2018.

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by DLR/BIRA