Researchers set record while measuring ozone depletion
In an experiment designed to identify the ozone-depleting components in the stratosphere, the so-called second floor of the earth’s atmosphere, a balloon has measured the chemical processes of an entire day in the Arctic polar vortex for the first time ever – at temperatures of minus 90 degrees. The experiment led by researchers in Karlsruhe is to aid in climate prognosis.
Record-setting balloon voyage in the Polar Circle, photo: KIT
The announcement of the record measurement was made Tuesday, February 2 by researchers at the Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT). The project was led by Hermann Oelhaf of the Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung at the KIT.
With a load of 750-kilos, the specially designed balloon had already successfully gone a little over a week to a 13-hour measurement flight. The voyage was started from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden. The helium-filled balloon reached a height of 34-kilometers and with it a new record.
Gasses responsible for ozone depletion measured
Never before has a balloon of this size been sent into the air in a North Pole winter at such low temperatures. At the experiment’s start, the temperature on the ground was at -29 degrees Celsius. The ascent of the experiment through the freezing cold stratosphere sent the temperature inside the balloon to a -101 degrees Celsius.
On board the balloon were three instruments to explore the chemical composition of the polar vortex. The instruments enabled the measurement of more than 30 trace gases in the stratosphere both by day and night. The essential aim of the balloon mission according to KIT was to determine the various chlorine and bromine-containing compounds during the day and at night. These compounds are responsible for ozone depletion.
The researchers hope that the findings from the balloon will help them to better simulate atmospheric processes. This would enable more reliable medium and long-term climate predictions to be made.
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