Going where man has never gone before

 

The Island Sailing Club, Cowes is renown for presenting world famous Round the Island Races... 

Now we step in to the future with an attempt by local legend, World Champion Windsurfer Ross Williams, Kitesurf pro blogster Tom Court And local waterman Tom Buggy to Wing Foil the 55nm around the Isle of Wight.

From SailingScuttlebutt

While the windward leeward course may offer a proper test of tactics and boat handling, it lacks the elements of adventure and problem-solving found when competing amid random legs rife with islands and inlets.

Nobody ever asked, “Why did you do a double sausage?”, but do something bold, something never done before like wingfoiling the 50nm around the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England and you might hear the immortal words of mountaineer George Mallory, “Because it is there.”

Four wingfoilers – World Champion Windsurfer Ross Williams along with Tom Court, Sam Light, and Thomas Buggy – will make the herculean inaugural attempt to complete the distance.

With the Solent on one side and the English Channel on the other, it will test the athletes resolve to endure the course on a foil board while powered by a handheld wing sail.

“We will have lots of different conditions, from big waves on the south side of the Island, tidal rips, flat water in wind shadows and some upwind sailing,” says Buggy.

A key challenge will be in the selection of the most appropriate equipment, as usually different size foils and sails are chosen for optimal performance in a small range of wind strengths.

By contrast the squadron of wingmen will need to select gear that gives sufficient power in the lightest wind they will experience, without being so large as to be overwhelming at the other end of the spectrum.

The squadron of foilers aim to set out from Cowes around mid-morning on September 23 and are raising funds for HASAG, a charity dedicated to helping people suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, in memory of Williams’ father who passed away recently.

A 3,700-Mile sailing trip shows why strict quarantine is failing

New Zealand has one of the strictest Covid-19 border restrictions with many quarantine hotels booked out.
Two Kiwis have found a different way to get home.

From Bloomberg by Angus Whitley, Ainsley Thomson & Jinshan Hong

• Stranded citizens struggle to get back home during pandemic
• Calls mount for shakeups in nations still pursuing Covid Ze
  

Stuck in Tahiti with no available flights, Paul Stratfold was running out of time to get back home to Australia and renew his residency visa.

The Briton decided his best option was to sail 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) across the southern Pacific Ocean, a solo voyage that took almost a month. 

 

A professional sailor, the 41-year-old had done nothing of this magnitude before.
Stratfold’s 50-foot yacht was battered by a storm for two days and he slept no more than 40 minutes at a time to reduce the risk of collisions.
“It was the only way I could get home,” he said in an interview.
He reached Southport in Queensland on July 3.

Desperate journeys like this, along with tales of tragedy and separation, are increasingly common as the pandemic wears on, especially where governments persist with hardline quarantines and border controls.
Nearly two years into this crisis, tens of thousands of frustrated citizens of nations such as Australia and New Zealand remain stranded overseas, unable to secure flights back to their homelands and one of the few slots allocated for compulsory hotel quarantine.

Mandatory quarantines helped insulate so-called Covid Zero nations from the worst of the pandemic by keeping out the virus.
But as other parts of the world start to move on and reopen, maintaining these costly systems is becoming less tenable, and cracks are starting to show.

Under siege from an outbreak of the delta variant after a single case evaded its border curbs, Australia has repeatedly slashed its quarantine quota, with fewer than 3,000 overseas arrivals allowed in each week.
That’s for a nation of 25 million known for its widespread diaspora.
New Zealand’s hotel quarantine system has been derided as demand outstrips supply, a problem exacerbated by a freeze on room releases during the current lockdown, also sparked by a delta incursion.

‘Washing Out’

One of the few places to avoid a delta outbreak, Hong Kong still requires people coming from the U.S. and U.K. to quarantine in a hotel room for 21 days, even if they’re fully vaccinated.
A lack of affordable options has resulted in a mad rush for beds.
Some who can’t stomach three weeks in isolation are flying in via countries deemed as lower risk to reduce their quarantine time.

‘Day 12’ and ‘Day 13’ stickers displayed on the windows of a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong on Aug. 17.
Photographer: Zhang Wei/China News Service/Getty Images

After finishing his studies in London, David Deka adopted this approach -- known as “washing out” -- when Hong Kong abruptly suspended all passenger flights from Britain throughout July.
He spent three weeks in Serbia, which still had flights to Hong Kong as it was deemed lower risk.
While he was there, the only connection to Hong Kong was suspended too.

“It was stressful,” Deka said.
“I thought anything that I do, Hong Kong will do something to stop me from coming back.”

He eventually got back to Hong Kong, where he still had to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days.
Deka said he met dozens of people in Serbia who had traveled from India, which was on several blacklists due to its rampaging outbreak, to “wash out” before heading to places such as the U.S. and Canada.

 

David Deka, center, with other “wash out” travelers touring Serbia.
Source: David Deka

Hong Kong Won’t Open Up Before Vaccine Rate Hits At Least 80%

The lengths taken are in stark contrast to many other parts of the world, where vaccinations are ticking higher and border restrictions are easing, or were never really imposed at all.

Locking down countries and eliminating the virus domestically should only be a stop-gap measure until vaccination rates increase, according to immunologist Graham Le Gros, director of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, New Zealand.

“Elimination has run its course,” he said.
“It’s destroying the fabric of society.”

Up in arms at their inability to return to dying relatives, tend to businesses, or just come home for Christmas, some people are fighting back.

Legal Challenge

A pregnant New Zealander became one of the most high-profile challengers to the country’s quarantine model.
Bergen Graham, 33, was living with her husband in his home country of El Salvador when she became pregnant in February.
Her tourist visa expired, so she went to Los Angeles and started trying to get home.

Classed as medically high-risk, Graham applied six times for a place in New Zealand’s quarantine system, according to her lawyer Frances Joychild.
All failed.

The situation changed almost immediately when Joychild filed a lawsuit against the government, claiming the quarantine system breached New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act, a law that states every citizen has the right to enter the country.

“The government were on the phone the next day wanting to settle,” Joychild said in an interview.
“They offered her a place.” Graham and her husband landed in Auckland on Sept.
16 and headed into quarantine.

While Graham dropped her case as part of the settlement, she’s opened a potential pathway for others.
Joychild has been flooded with calls and emails from New Zealanders seeking to challenge the process in the same way.
“A class action is a possibility,” she said.

Grounded Kiwis, a network of more than 3,500 New Zealanders worldwide impacted by the policy, is also weighing legal action.
“This is causing too much suffering,” said spokesman Samuel Drew.

The stage is set for quarantine shakeups across Asia, the region most actively deploying border regimes that ensured fewer deaths but are leaving countries increasingly isolated the longer they persist.
Opposition is growing as the once water-tight systems struggle to keep out the more transmissible delta.
The latest virus outbreak in China, a leading proponent of Covid Zero, was likely seeded by a returnee who tested positive after 21 days of quarantine.

New Zealand’s chief ombudsman, Peter Boshier, said last month he was considering a review of the quarantine regime after a surge of complaints.
In a video message to expatriates this month, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged the heartbreak many had suffered.

Arrivals to New Zealand typically stay for 14 days in one of about 30 facilities dotted across the country.
For those who then depart New Zealand within 180 days, quarantine costs NZ$3,100 ($2,200).
The system’s booking websitesaw 19,600 daily visitors in early August.
Grounded Kiwis said only 200 quarantine rooms are released every day, equating to a 1% chance of success.

Some 45,000 people overseas want to return to Australia, the government says.
They’re increasingly helpless because international arrivals into the country’s airports are capped at just 2,286 a week, a number that has shrunk as delta cases spiraled.
The weekly limit into Sydney was halved to 756 passengers this month.

Morrison says he wants to introduce home quarantine for returning Australians who are fully vaccinated.
While a trial is underway in the state of South Australia, and another will start shortly in New South Wales, a transition away from hotels will only come once Australia’s vaccination rate passes 70% or even 80%, according to the prime minister. 

Hotel quarantine is clearly losing relevance.
It served as Australia’s primary detector of infections last year, before delta sent much of the country into lockdown.
But these days, the vast majority of new cases are in the community.
Just 16 of more than 9,000 cases in New South Wales in the past week came from overseas.

Eric Blackwell sailing in Indonesia in August.
Source: Eric Blackwell

For some, the solution is to avoid quarantine altogether.
Eric Blackwell, 30, and Tim Wright, 28, are sailing back to New Zealand from Indonesia on a 47-foot yacht.
Provided they test negative for Covid-19 on arrival, they won’t have to quarantine after the six-week voyage as long as it’s been 14 days since their last port of call.

While the trip is chiefly an adventure for the two out-of-work pilots, they’re taking a couple with them who were in Bali and couldn’t secure quarantine slots.

“There are a lot of people struggling to get home,” Blackwell said in a video interview from their boat, Kiwi Summers.
“I wouldn’t even try to fly.”

Fellow sailor Stratfold, who is fully vaccinated, wasn’t so lucky.
Unable to secure an exemption from quarantine after making landfall in Australia, he had to isolate in a nearby hotel for 14 days, at a cost of almost A$3,000 ($2,200).

“To go through all this hardship and expense is just ridiculous,” he said.
“How could anyone have Covid after 26 days alone on a boat?”  

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : COVID-inspired adventure takes amateur sailors from ...
  

Sea Machines embarks on ‘world’s first’ autonomous, remotely commanded voyage by an ocean tugboat

Throughout the voyage, the Nellie Bly will carry two professional mariners and occasional guest passengers and will call on ports along the route to display and demonstrate the technology.

Sea Machines will stream the journey live on a website dedicated to The Machine Odyssey for all to have access to 24/7 updates from the sea, the crew, the command center, and more.

From Robotics&AutomationNews by David Edwards

In a milestone moment slated to prove that the world’s waterways are primed and ready for autonomous technology, Sea Machines will circumnavigate Denmark on a multi-week 1,000 nautical mile remotely commanded commercial voyage.

Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous command and control systems for the maritime industry, says it will embark on a 1,000 nautical mile autonomous and remotely commanded journey around Denmark later this month.

Aptly named “The Machine Odyssey”, the voyage marks a landmark moment for autonomous transportation and is slated to prove that the world’s waterways are primed and ready for long-range autonomy.

The Machine Odyssey will depart from Hamburg, Germany, on September 30, with full onboard vessel control managed by autonomous technology, while operating under the authority of commanding officers located in the United States.

The selected vessel, a modern ubiquitous tug designed and built by Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands, is named the Nellie Bly.

This voyage will prove to the world, and specifically to the thousands of global companies that operate the fleets of cargo ships, tugs, ferries and the many other types of commercial workboats, that operators can integrate autonomous technology into their vessel operations for a host of technology-driven benefits, from enhanced safety and reliability to leaps in productivity and new on-water capabilities.

The Machine Odyssey marks “a new era in the human-technology relationship”, propelling on-sea operations in the 21st century, says Sea Machines.

At the helm will be the Sea Machines SM300 autonomy system, which will also utilize the latest in Sea Machines’ industry-leading, long-range computer vision.

A preview of the SM3000 autonomy system which provides live updates to the onshore crew.
Credit: Sea Machines

 

The SM300 is a comprehensive sensor-to-propeller autonomy system that uses advanced path-planning, obstacle avoidance replanning, vectored nautical chart data and dynamic domain perception, all to control a voyage from start to finish.

The SM300 provides the remote human commanders with an active chart environment with live augmented overlays showing the mission, state of vessel, situational awareness and environmental data, as well as real-time, vessel-born audio and video from many streaming cameras.

Marine fleets operate in our planet’s most lively and often potent environment where the direct forces on vessels regularly exceed those ever experienced by machines on road, air or space.

Safety of ship, crew and cargo is paramount within the Sea Machines’ autonomy stack, with protection behaviors that enable the industry to optimize operations with assurance and an exacting balance of safety, productivity and efficiency.

The project name – The Machine Odyssey – translates to a long purpose-driven and eventful journey and harks to Homer’s Odyssey, which for millennia has inspired humanity by Ulysses’ and his crew’s courage to undertake a voyage of discovery and adventure.

 

This in many ways exemplifies the attitude and journey of an American venture-backed, deep-tech startup such as Sea Machines, says the company.

The selected vessel, a modern ubiquitous tug designed and built by Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands, is named the Nellie Bly, paying homage to the American journalist, industrialist, inventor and charity worker who was widely known for her ultra-bold and record-breaking solo trip around the world in 72 days.

Michael Johnson, CEO of Sea Machines, says: “From time immemorial the oceans have driven the best of human innovation, designed and built by architects and engineers, and deployed by a select and special group of people, mariners, that much of society relies on today and evermore in the future for the supply of food, power, water, goods and transport.

“And as a technology space leader, Sea Machines takes it as our duty to embark into new waters, motor through any and all fog of uncertainty, and prove the value within our planned technology course.

“Just as other land-based industries shift repetitive, manual drudgery from human to predictable robotic systems, our autonomous technology elevates humans from controller to commander with most of the direct continuous control effort being managed by technology.

“This recast human-technology relationship is the basis of a new era of at-sea operations and will give on-water industries the tools and capability to be much more competitive, end the erosion of high-value cargo to air and road, put more vessels on water, operate in better harmony with the natural ocean environment and deliver new products and services.”

Links :

• The Martime Executive : Sea Machines Sets Out to Prove AI Potential with Tugboat Voyage

Major breakthrough in research on decompression sickness : may be caused by faulty immune response

Decompression

From Norwegian Scitec News by Anne Sliper Midling

An NTNU researcher has discovered what happens in the genes of divers with decompression sickness.

The breakthrough is gaining international attention after more than a century of searching for the causes of divers’ disease.

It is infinitely beautiful below the ocean’s surface.
So beautiful that every year some divers are tempted to go a little too deep and stay there a little too long.

Decompression sickness (DCS) has been a known condition for more than a century.

The disease – sometimes referred to as the bends – occurs when a diver returns to the surface too fast.
“It’s beautiful underwater, but it’s also dangerously tempting to go a little too deep and stay a little too long,” says Ingrid Eftedal, a senior scientist at NTNU.

 

Gas bubbles form in the blood and tissues due to decreasing water pressure in the ascent.

Some divers become paralyzed for life.

Others get skin rashes or a little pain in their joints.

The condition can be fatal.

No medical test is available that can reveal whether you have the disease or not.

Until now.
The discovery is the first step in developing a blood test that can make it easier to check if someone has DCS.

 

 
Strikes adventurous recreational divers

To date, diagnosis and treatment are based only on symptoms.

No one really knows when the treatment is good enough.
“Decompression sickness often occurs in adventurous recreational divers,” says Ingrid Eftedal, a senior scientist at NTNU’s Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging.

She is one of Norway’s few experts on what happens to the human body under water.
Until now, researchers haven’t managed to describe in detail the biological changes that occur in DCS.

Now Eftedal and a team from Malta have made a major breakthrough.
“DCS is simply the immune system going crazy and causing an inflammatory condition in the body,” says Eftedal.

 

Examined genetic changes

The team’s findings have been published in Frontiers in Physiology, and their study is the first to describe all the changes in genetic activity in the blood of divers with the condition.

A major finding was that the white blood cell activity of the innate immune system became strongly activated.

These blood cells are the first line of defence in the body’s immune system, and their activation causes inflammation in divers who are afflicted.

The finding could make it possible to develop a blood test that can diagnose the disease.
“Then we’ll be able to catch people who have a mild variant of DCS, and we’ll also be able to check when they’ve completed treatment,” says Eftedal.

Today, only a few Norwegian hospitals have solid DCS expertise.

If you become ill in Trondheim, for example, you would need to be flown to Bergen to receive treatment in a pressure chamber where you breathe oxygen at high pressure.

A blood test would make it easier to make a definite diagnosis early.

 
Want to explore beautiful wrecks

Over the years, scuba divers have learned to reduce the risk of DCS with controlled ascents from the depths.

Very few people are diagnosed with DCS in Norway.

Approximately five people each year in Central Norway receive treatment in a pressure chamber.

The unreported numbers are probably much larger.

The low number means has made it difficult to study the condition. 

t is almost impossible to know where and when a patient is admitted with the condition, and thus equally impossible to obtain a large enough number of samples taken at the same time.

Decompression sickness occurs when you come up too fast from a dive.

Gas bubbles form in the blood and tissues due to the reduced pressure.

The white dots in the image are gas bubbles in the heart.

Photo: Andreas Møllerløkken / NTNU

The solution lay in Malta.

High numbers of recreational divers come here every year to explore the beautiful wrecks from the country’s long history of European and Arab conquests.

The same thing happens every year: 50 to 100 divers go a little too deep, and stay there a little too long.
Doctors in Malta have a lot of experience with DCS and were very interested in collaborating with Eftedal and the research team at the University of Malta.

Measured gene expression in white blood cells

Together, the team took blood samples from divers who had been diagnosed with DCS and divers who had completed a dive without developing the condition.

The researchers took the blood samples at two different times: within eight hours after the divers came out of the water and 48 hours afterwards, when the divers with DCS had undergone treatment in a pressure chamber.

They performed RNA sequencing analysis to measure changes in the gene expression in white blood cells.

The study showed that DCS activates some of the most primitive body defence mechanisms carried out by certain white blood cells.

“In the case of decompression sickness, something happens that’s reminiscent of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis. The immune system misunderstands. It’s conceivable that future treatment could also involve immunoregulatory drugs,” says Eftedal.

An earlier survey by Eftedal of healthy, experienced divers who regularly do recreational diving likewise showed changes in the activity of white blood cells during diving, even when the divers did not feel any discomfort or show symptoms of DCS.

Links :

• Acute Effects on the Human Peripheral Blood Transcriptome of Decompression Sickness Secondary to Scuba Diving. /  Acute and potentially persistent effects of scuba diving on the blood transcriptome of experienced divers. 
• Maritime Executive : Study: Decompression Sickness May be Caused by Faulty Immune Response

How nuclear subs could transform Australia, its alliance and Asia

HMS Talent, one of the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines: the UK and US have agreed to support Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines (Ministry of Defence)

From LowyInstitute by Sam Roggeveen 

First thoughts on the consequences of a truly momentous decision.

 

Australia is about to join an exclusive group of nations operating one of the most lethal military platforms ever conceived – nuclear-powered submarines.

My initial thoughts on this extraordinary announcement are below.

These are subject to revision as I think through the implications of what is a truly historic announcement:

Only six nations currently operate nuclear-power submarines (SSNs), and all six have civilian nuclear power industries and nuclear weapons programs.

Australia joining this club marks a dramatic break with this historic norm (although for some years Brazil has had a research program aimed at eventually fielding an indigenous SSN).

It is impossible to read this as anything other than a response to China’s rise, and a significant escalation of American commitment to that challenge.

 

The United States has only ever shared this technology with the United Kingdom, so the fact that Australia is now joining this club indicates that the United States is prepared to take significant new steps and break with old norms to meet the China challenge.

I have been sceptical of the idea that the United States really wanted to enter a Cold War with China, but this announcement is significant evidence that it is indeed prepared to take such a momentous step.

It is wise to assume that the scale of this agreement, and the close strategic and operational links it implies, will create expectations from Washington.

Australia cannot have this capability while assuming that it does not come with heightened expectations that Australia will take America’s side in any dispute with China.

 

The U.S. is forming an Indo-Pacific security alliance with Britain and Australia that will allow for greater sharing of defense resources - including nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

The move could worsen the U.S. rift with China.

courtesy of HI Sutton

It is extraordinary that this momentous decision could be made without parliamentary or public scrutiny.

That is the real long-term significance of the deal ­– even more than the agreement to base Marines in Darwin, this deal signals that Australia is betting on the United States as a long-term partner in its region as China’s rise continues.

Australia is gambling that, over the decades-long lifespan of these submarines, the United States will remain committed to its defence and to maintaining a regional presence in the face of the largest economic and strategic challenge in American history.

The single best piece of news to come out of this announcement is that Australia will cancel the Attack-class submarine program with France’s Naval Group.

This is unquestionably a good thing.

The project was going to deliver submarines too late and at eye-watering cost.

The announcement of a trilateral “AUKUS” partnership this morning by Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden was notable for different points of emphasis.

Morrison and Biden explicitly framed this agreement geographically (security in the Indo-Pacific).

Johnson did not, instead emphasising the defence-industrial benefits for Britain and historic links with Australia.

The United Kingdom has made some efforts in recent years to develop its naval presence in Asia, but that is not how Johnson chose to view this new agreement. 

 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joins US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the launch of the AUKUS Partnership (Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr)

It is extraordinary that this momentous decision could be made without parliamentary or public scrutiny.
The 18-month consultation process that Morrison has announced will focus on how the submarine agreement will be implemented, and not whether it is a good idea.
Many will now begin to consider the implications of this agreement for the wider region, even beyond how China will respond.
South Korea is already edging towards the development of an indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, and it would now be no shock to see Japan take the same course.
There are still many unknowns, including relating to reports that emerged late yesterday that as an interim measure, Australia would host US nuclear submarines in Western Australia until acquiring its own.

The idea that Australia would outsource its submarine capability to the US Navy for an interim period is extraordinary in itself.

Does Australia actually need nuclear-powered submarines?

It depends on what you want to achieve.

They would certainly be important assets in any allied effort to deter war with China or to defeat China if deterrence failed.
SSNs have the range and endurance needed for long-range operations together with the United States.
But because they are expensive, Australia can’t have very many, and given the sea approaches to Australia are vast and with many choke points that need to be patrolled, they are less useful for the defence of the continent.
So, if Australia believes it needs the capability to defend the Australian continent alone, then this is the wrong decision.
As already mentioned, this decision is a long-term bet on the endurance of the alliance, and on the likelihood that the US has the resolve to stay in Asia.
It is also worth saying that these submarines will be largely dependent on US and UK nuclear know how.
All the talk of recent years about Australia acquiring “sovereign” capabilities that can operate independently has gone out the window.
We had better hope that our defence and foreign policy priorities remain closely aligned with these two partners.

Links :

• CNN : Biden and UK to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines in new pushback on China / Australia had 'deep and grave' concerns about French submarines' capabilities, PM says
• AP News : Australia: Strategic shifts led it to acquire nuclear subs
• NYTimes : Biden Announces Defense Deal With Australia in a Bid to Counter China
• Reuters : France says Biden acted like Trump to sink Australia defence deal / Australia to build eight nuclear-powered submarines under new Indo-Pacific pact
• Forbes : U.S. Will Help Australia Build Nuclear Submarines In New Deal Countering China 
• The Guardian : Australia could initially lease submarines from UK or US but nuclear weapons remain off limits / Australian nuclear submarine plan ‘wrong direction at the wrong time’, Nobel prize-winning group says / US, UK and Australia forge military alliance to counter China 
• The Times : Is the West entering a Cold War with China? 
• AlJazeera : How a submarine deal sparked a major diplomatic crisis
• SCMP : Why is Southeast Asia so concerned about Aukus and Australia’s plans for nuclear submarines?
• FT : Beijing confronts new regional challenge after Australia defence deal / The nuclear technology behind Australia’s Aukus submarine deal 
• The Diplomat : The Strategic Symbolism of Australia’s Nuclear Subs 
• CSBA : Gateway to the Indo-Pacific: Australian Defense Strategy and the Future of the Australia-U.S. Alliance 

Hole in the ozone layer that develops annually is 'rather larger than usual' this year - and is currently bigger than Antarctica, scientists say

The 2021 ozone hole evolution appears to be similar to last year’s size, currently around 23 million sq km – reaching an extent larger than Antarctica.

According to CAMS, the 2021 ozone hole has considerably grown in the last two weeks and is now larger than 75% of ozone holes at that stage in the season since 1979.

This map is centered on the Antarctic region.

Areas coloured yellow, orange and red depict high ozone values, whereas green and blue areas show low values.

Credit: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service/ECMWF

From CNN by Jevan Ravindran

The hole in the ozone that forms every year over the South Pole is now larger than Antarctica, scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said Thursday.

The ozone depletes and forms a hole over the Antarctic in the Southern Hemisphere's spring, which is from August to October.
It typically reaches its largest size between mid-September and mid-October, according to Copernicus.

After growing "considerably" in the past week, the hole is now larger than 75% of previous years' ozone holes at the same stage of the season since 1979 and is now bigger that the continent it looms over.

"This year, the ozone hole developed as expected at the start of the season," Vincent-Henri Peuch, Copernicus director, said in a statement.

 The 2021 ozone hole evolution appears to be similar to last year’s size, currently around 23 million sq km – reaching an extent larger than Antarctica.

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by DLR

 

"Now our forecasts show that this year´s hole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one."
Last year's hole also began unexceptionally in September, but then turned into "one of the longest-lasting ozone holes in our data record," according to Copernicus.
The ozone layer, which sits between 9 and 22 miles above the Earth, protects the planet from ultraviolet radiation.

The hole in the Southern Hemisphere is typically caused by chemicals, such as chlorine and bromine migrating into the stratosphere, creating catalytic reactions during Antarctic winter.
The ozone hole is related to the Antarctic polar vortex, a band of swirling cold air that moves around the Earth.

 

The Antarctic ozone hole, which forms every year over the South Pole between August and October, is now larger than Antarctica, according to scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. https://t.co/rzZQZucdSS pic.twitter.com/zlDAdofbTL

— CNN Weather Center (@CNNweather) September 17, 2021

When temperatures high up in the stratosphere start to rise in the late spring, ozone depletion slows, the polar vortex weakens and finally breaks down, and by December, ozone levels usually return to normal.
This ends the isolation of air created by the polar vortex that forms during Antarctic winter, enabling chemicals such as chlorine and bromine to deplete the ozone layer, according to Copernicus and NASA.
Ozone levels are usually restored to normal levels by December.

Copernicus monitors the ozone layer using computer modeling and satellite observations, and although the ozone layer is showing signs of recovery, Copernicus says it would not completely recover until the 2060s or 2070s.

This is because it will take time to see the effects of the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which deplete the ozone layer.
The chemicals were first regulated by the Montreal Protocol -- first signed in 1987.
They are expected to be phased out by 2030, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
A study published in the Nature journal last month said the world would be on course for an additional 2.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures and a collapse of the ozone layer if CFCs had not been banned by the protocol.

Links :

• CNN : A 1980s ban on CFCs to heal the ozone layer is also shaving degrees off global warming, study says
• DailyMail : Ozone layer Hole develops annually larger usual year scientists say
• The Guardian : ‘Larger than usual’: this year’s ozone layer hole bigger than Antarctica
• Copernicus : CAMS Monitors Evolution of Ozone Hole
• Scitecdaily : What’s Going On With Earth’s Ozone Hole? 

Veracruz old maps

A 1580 map of Tlacotalpa, a small river village in the southeast of the state of Veracruz, Mexico.

Drawn by Sevillian navigator, explorer, cosmographer and cartographer, Francisco Gali, it is one of the first examples of local nautical cartography in Hispanic America.

 

1809 Nautical Chart or Map of the Harbor of Veracruz, Mexico

source Geographicus

 

1891 U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office Nautical Chart of Port of Veracruz, Mexico

source Geographicus

Current nautical map from SEMAR in the GeoGarage platform

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : One of the first examples of a local nautical map from Hispanic America