WHAT: Sage III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (Solve)high-altitude balloon
WHERE: Esrange, the Swedish Space Corporation's civilian rocket-launch facility near Kiruna, Sweden, 124 miles north of the Arctic Circle
WHY: To better understand and predict stratospheric ozone loss, which got as high as 60 percent last winter. Part of an international research initiative, Solve measured photochemical and meteorological processes affecting Northern Hemisphere ozone levels between 30,000 and 180,000 feet.
WHO: NASA, in collaboration with the European Union's Theseo 2000
HOW: Solve focused on the polar stratospheric clouds that convert inorganic chlorine into its ozone-destroying free-radical form. The helium-filled balloons measured up to 29 million cubic feet, traveled as high as 100,000 feet, and carried a dual-beam UV in-situ O3 photometer, to measure ozone levels; a gas chromatograph, to measure organic chlorine and other trace gases; a submillimeterwave limb sounder, to measure thermal emissions; and a MkIV interferometer, to detect atmospheric composition. An analysis of balloon readings - and additional project data - will be presented at the Solve-Theseo2000 Science Meeting in September.
