Ozone hole above Antarctica is largest in years

A hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is the largest and deepest it's been for 15 years.

This is according to new research by the European Space Agency (ESA) which showed that the hole was 25 million sq km big - that's around 100 times the size of the UK.

The ozone layer is part of the Earth's atmosphere, where ozone, a form of oxygen gas, is found.

It is very important to humans, animals and plants on Earth because it acts like a kind of sun cream, protecting us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.

"Our observations show that the 2020 ozone hole has grown rapidly since mid-August, and covers most of the Antarctic continent - with its size well above average.

"What is also interesting to see is that the 2020 ozone hole is also one of the deepest and shows record-low ozone values," said Diego Loyola, from the German Aerospace Centre.

These findings came from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite - which became the first satellite completely dedicated to monitoring changes to the ozone layer when it was launched in 2017.

The hole in our ozone layer is constantly changing, growing bigger and smaller in size.

This is mostly because of a strong wind band that flows around the Antarctic area.

However, in the 1970s and 1980s scientists discovered that the ozone layer was thinning as a result of greenhouse gases called CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).

In 1990, 93 countries got together to sign the Clean Air Act Amendment and agreed to ban the use of CFCs by the year 2000.

A few decades later, in 2018, Nasa shared the first proof that the ozone hole had begun to recover due to a ban on harmful chemicals.

Some climate scientists say it could take decades for the hole in our ozone layer to fully recover.