Scientists discovered the ozone hole in 1985, but if they'd had the atmospheric monitoring capabilities of today, they could have found it 30 years earlier, according to new research.

Depletion of the ozone layer has been traced mainly to the widespread use of industrial chlorofluorocarbon chemicals, but there might have been an additional culprit.

Ozone depletion began decades before discovery of ozone hole, MIT scientists have found. Using modern tools, they also determined that carbon tetrachloride, a common dry-cleaning…