Polishing apparatus, polishing method, and non-volatile storage medium

The invention provides a polishing apparatus, a polishing method, and a non-volatile storage medium, and aims to suppress drying of a substrate when the substrate is released from a substrate holding member in the polishing apparatus. The polishing apparatus includes a polishing table, a substrate holding member, a pressure regulator, one or a plurality of release nozzles, and a control device that performs a substrate release process in which the pressure regulator is controlled to pressurize the entire elastic film by pressurizing the entire region of the pressure chamber, and the one or a plurality of release nozzles are released from the pressure chamber. The central portion of the elastic film is pressurized by pressurizing the pressure chamber such that the pressure of one or more central regions including the region at the center of the pressure chamber is higher than the pressure of the other regions. And releasing the substrate from the elastic film by controlling the one or more release nozzles so a