This video-taken by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument onboard NASA’s Aura satellite-shows the ozone hole as it reaches its yearly maximum, 23 years after the ban of chlorofluorocarbons, once the center of all fridges and hair spray cans worldwide.

Today is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, which marks the day of the ban: September 16, 1987. The results of chlorofluorocarbons and other chlorine and bromine-containing compounds are still being felt on the earth’s atmosphere today.

Chlorofluorocarbons-or as the DuPont Corporation called them: Freon-is a nearly miraculous organic compound that had low toxicity, low reactivity, and coffee flammability. They were regarded as good for our environment until two researchers at the University of California, Irvine, discovered they were silently destroying the planet .

The 2010 ozone hole season

Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina found that CFCs were decomposed by the Sun’s light once inside the upper atmosphere layer, producing a chlorine radical that turns ozone into O2, destroying the layer that protects us and the planet against sure death by ultraviolet rays.

In other words: In case you were planning some chilly vacations in Antarctica, cancel them. [ NASA Goddard -Thanks Rebecca!]

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This post is tagged: chlorofluorocarbons, dupont corporation, sherwood rowland, university of california irvine, upper atmosphere