Ozone hole larger than last year

(CNN) - This year's ozone hole over Antarctica is larger in both size and ozone loss than last year, but not as large as in 2006, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

The hole is actually a thinning area in the ozone layer over Antarctica. This year, the size of the thinned area over the South Pole reached about 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles), compared to 25 million square kilometers (9.65 million square miles) in 2007.

In 2006, the hole was a record 29 million square kilometers (11.2 million square miles), larger than North America, the ESA said.