NASA Spacecraft Measures Unusual 2005 Arctic Ozone Conditions

Alan Buis (818) 354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

News Release: 2005-092 June 2, 2005

NASA Spacecraft Measures Unusual 2005 Arctic Ozone Conditions



Despite near-record levels of chemical ozone destruction in the Arctic this
winter,
observations from NASA's Aura spacecraft showed that other atmospheric
processes
restored ozone amounts to near average and stopped high levels of harmful
ultraviolet
radiation from reaching Earth's surface.



Analyses from Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder indicated Arctic chemical ozone
destruction
this past winter peaked at near 50 percent in some regions of the
stratosphere, a region of
Earth's atmosphere that begins about 8 to 12 kilometers (5 to 7 miles) above
Earth's poles.
This was the second highest level ever recorded, behind the 60 percent level
estimated for
the 1999-2000 winter. Data from another instrument on Aura, the Ozone
Monitoring
Instrument, found the total amount of ozone over the Arctic this past March
was similar to
other recent years when much less chemical ozone destruction occurred. So
what
tempered the ozone loss? The answer appears to lie in this year's unusual
Arctic
atmospheric conditions.



"This was one of the most unusual Arctic winters ever," said scientist Dr.
Gloria Manney of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who led the Microwave
Limb Sounder
analyses. "Arctic lower stratospheric temperatures were the lowest on
record. But other
conditions like wind patterns and air motions were less conducive to ozone
loss this year."



While the Arctic polar ozone was being chemically destroyed toward the end
of winter,
stratospheric winds shifted and transported ozone-rich air from Earth's
middle latitudes into
the Arctic polar region, resulting in little net change in the total amount
of ozone. As a
result, harmful ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth's surface remained at
near-normal levels.

Imagery and an animation depicting the Microwave Limb Sounder and Ozone
Monitoring
Instrument 2005 Arctic ozone observations may be viewed at:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/loo...zone-aura.html .



Extensive ozone loss occurs each winter over Antarctica (the "ozone hole")
due to the
extreme cold there and its strong, long-lived polar vortex (a band of winds
that forms each
winter at high latitudes). This vortex isolates the region from middle
latitudes. In contrast,
the Arctic winter is warmer and its vortex is weaker and shorter-lived. As
a result, Arctic
ozone loss has always been lower, more variable and much more difficult to
quantify.



This was the first Arctic winter monitored by Aura, which was launched in
July 2004. Aura's
Microwave Limb Sounder is contributing to our understanding of the processes
that cause
Arctic wind patterns to push ozone-rich air to the Arctic lower stratosphere
from higher
altitudes and lower latitudes. Through Aura's findings, scientists can
differentiate chemical
ozone destruction from ozone level changes caused by air motions, which vary
dramatically
from year to year.



"Understanding Arctic ozone loss is critical to diagnosing the health of
Earth's ozone layer,"
said Dr. Phil DeCola, Aura program scientist at NASA Headquarters,
Washington.
"Previous attempts to quantify Arctic ozone loss have suffered from a lack
of data. With
Aura, we now have the most comprehensive, simultaneous, global daily
measurements of
many of the key atmospheric gases needed to understand and quantify chemical
ozone
destruction."



Ozone loss in Earth's stratosphere is caused primarily by chemical reactions
with chlorine
from human-produced compounds like chlorofluorocarbons. When stratospheric
temperatures drop below minus 78 degrees Celsius (minus 108 degrees
Fahrenheit), polar
stratospheric clouds form. Chemical reactions on the surfaces of these
clouds activate
chlorine, converting it into forms that destroy ozone when exposed to
sunlight.



The data obtained by Aura were independently confirmed by instruments
participating in
NASA's Polar Aura Validation Experiment, which flew underneath Aura as it
passed over
the polar vortex. The experiment, flown on NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory
from NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., carried 10 instruments to
measure
temperatures, aerosols, ozone, nitric acid and other gases. The experiment
was carried out
in January and February 2005.



Aura is the third and final major Earth Observing System satellite. Aura
carries four
instruments: the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, built by the Netherlands and
Finland in
collaboration with NASA; the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder, built by
the United
Kingdom and the United States; and the Microwave Limb Sounder and
Tropospheric
Emission Spectrometer, both built by JPL. Aura is managed by NASA's Goddard
Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.



For more information on Aura on the Internet, visit:

http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ .

For more information on the Microwave Limb Sounder on the Internet, visit:

http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.



-end-



--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info