Journalists to Report on Science Team Examining Arctic Ozone

John Bluck

NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, CA

(Phone: 650/604-5026 or 604-9000)

E-mail: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Chris Rink

NASA newsroom, Kiruna Sweden (1/21 through 1/28/2000)

(Phone: 46-980-398-787)

(Fax: 46-980-398-788)

E-mail: c.p.rink@express.larc.nasa.gov

David Steitz

NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202-358-1730)

MEDIA ADVISORY: 00-04

JOURNALISTS TO REPORT ON SCIENCE TEAM EXAMINING ARCTIC OZONE

While scientists from NASA, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada conduct the
largest effort yet to assess ozone changes in the Arctic upper atmosphere,
reporters will be able to cover the experiment during a “media week”
January 21 – 28 in Kiruna, Sweden.

More than 350 researchers are measuring ozone and other atmospheric gases
with instruments on the ground and aboard satellites, airplanes, and
heavy-lift as well as small balloons to examine the processes that control
ozone amounts at mid-to-high latitudes. The campaign began in November 1999
and continues through March. NASA’s DC-8 and ER-2 research aircraft will
be joined by European airplanes during the January/February deployment
period of the campaign.

The Earth’s ozone layer protects life below from harmful ultraviolet
radiation coming from the Sun that can lead to the formation of skin
cancers. Scientists have observed unusually low levels of ozone over the
Arctic during recent winters, raising concerns that ozone depletion there
could become more widespread as in the Antarctic ozone hole.

The campaign is based north of the Arctic Circle in Kiruna, Sweden,
which can be reached from Stockholm by commercial airlines. “Arena
Arctica,” a large hangar built especially for research, houses the
instrumented aircraft as well as scientists. Balloons are being launched
from Esrange, a balloon and rocket launch facility near Kiruna.

A NASA newsroom will operate in the Scandic Hotel Ferrum near the airport
during media week. During escorted tours into the research area,
journalists may meet with scientists.

The NASA-sponsored SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)
is being conducted jointly with the European Commission-sponsored Third
European Stratospheric Experiment on Ozone (THESEO 2000).

More information is available on the Internet at:

(SOLVE) — http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solve/index.html

(THESEO 2000) — http://www.ozone-sec.ch.cam.ac.uk

http://george.arc.nasa.gov/dx/basket/factsheets/FS991103.html

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