Transcript:

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Scientists have determined that man-made chloro-fluorocarbons, released into the atmosphere, have contributed to a thinning of the ozone layer. The cause and effect evidence of this comes mostly from studies done over the South Pole. What still remains unknown however, are the workings of the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“The critical case for demonstrating what lies behind the reduction of ozone in the Northern Hemisphere involves flying instruments into regions which have never been explored before.”

Jim Anderson is Phillip Weld professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Harvard University.

“We must reach to much higher altitudes than current aircraft platforms can reach, but we must do it in a way that brings back information extracted from the atmosphere itself, looking at molecules that are purported to destroy ozone that are mixed simultaneously with ozone in the same region of space. And this is what establishes a smoking gun in a scientific case such as this. And collecting this smoking gun, the information that connects chloro-fluorocarbons with ozone, we have to get to high altitude and we have to get deep into the arctic winter where no aircraft is capable of flying. And this need has now initiated the development of a revolutionary platform that can fly very much higher than aircraft have been able to fly before into the depths of the polar night where there is no sunlight, it’s extremely cold. And buried inside these regions are the secrets that will allow us to then predict what will happen to ozone into the next century.”

More on high altitude ozone research in future programs.

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, to encourage respect for our environment.

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