Copyright © 2011, Springer Nature LimitedManney, GloriaSantee, MichelleRex, MarkusLivesey, NathanielPitts, MichaelVeefkind, PepijnNash, EricWohltmann, IngoLehmann, RalphFroidevaux, LucienPoole, LamontSchoeberl, MarkHaffner, DavidDavies, JonathanDorokhov, ValeryGernandt, HartwigJohnson, BryanKivi, RigelKyrö, EskoLarsen, NielsLevelt, PieternelMakshtas, AlexanderMcelroy, ThomasNakajima, HideakiParrondo, María ConcepciónTarasick, DavidVon der Gathen, PeterWalker, KaleyZinoviev, Nikita2026-01-292026-01-292011-10-02Nature 478: 469-4750028-0836https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10556https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12666/1678CALIOP data are publicly available at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/calipso/table_calipso.html, MLS data at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/data-holdings/MLS, OMI data at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/data-holdings/OMI/omto3_v003.shtml, and GEOS-5 MERRA analyses through http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/mdisc/data-holdings/merra/. The balloon-borne Antarctic ozone-sonde data recorded in 1985 and the following years are publicly available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.547983. Supplementary Information The file contains a Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Figures 1-7 with legends and additional references. (PDF 2872 kb) Supplementary Data 1A The data shows Arctic Ozone Data (ZIP 5905 kb) Supplementary Data 1B The data shows Arctic Ozone Station Information (XLS 10 kb) Manney, G., Santee, M., Rex, M. et al. Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011. Nature 478, 469–475 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10556Chemical ozone destruction occurs over both polar regions in local winter–spring. In the Antarctic, essentially complete removal of lower-stratospheric ozone currently results in an ozone hole every year, whereas in the Arctic, ozone loss is highly variable and has until now been much more limited. Here we demonstrate that chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was—for the first time in the observational record—comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole. Unusually long-lasting cold conditions in the Arctic lower stratosphere led to persistent enhancement in ozone-destroying forms of chlorine and to unprecedented ozone loss, which exceeded 80 per cent over 18–20 kilometres altitude. Our results show that Arctic ozone holes are possible even with temperatures much milder than those in the Antarctic. We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded.engAtmospheric scienceSolid earth sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article10.1038/nature105561476-4687info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess