SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

The SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) will bring together international scientists in the largest field campaign ever conducted to measure ozone amounts and changes in the Arctic stratosphere. Research activities will be conducted from November 1999 through March 2000. The results of SOLVE will expand our understanding of polar ozone processes and provide greater confidence in our current ozone monitoring and predicting capabilities.

Contacts:
David Steitz, NASA Headquarters Public Affairs, Washington, D.C., (202) 358-1730
John Bluck, NASA Ames Research Center Public Affairs, Moffett Field, Calif., (650) 604-5026

Science Goals:
Very low levels of ozone were observed over the Arctic in the winters of 1995-96 and 1996-97, raising concerns that an Arctic ozone hole might be forming. Although there has been a downward trend in early spring ozone levels over both poles, ozone concentrations and temperatures in the Arctic are naturally higher than in the Antarctic. But scientists suspect that cooler temperatures in the Arctic stratosphere (30,000-180,000 feet altitude) may lead to greater ozone losses. Recent modeling work suggests that greenhouse gas warming might lead to larger than expected Arctic ozone losses in the future and may also delay the expected recovery of the ozone layer globally.

Objectives of the SOLVE campaign include:

• Identify the processes and variables (temperature, water, halogens, aerosols, etc.) that control ozone concentrations over the course of the winter
• Understand the composition of polar stratospheric clouds. Critical chemical reactions involved in ozone loss occur on the surfaces of these cloud particles
• Improve predictability of ozone loss in the Northern Hemisphere

Infrastructure: Measurements will be made using a large suite of instruments aboard aircraft, balloons, and on the ground. The DC-8 Airborne Laboratory and an ER-2 aircraft from NASA's Airborne Science Program based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., will take part in SOLVE. The "Arena Arctica" research hangar at the Kiruna commercial airport will house the aircraft and many of the scientific instruments. Four high-altitude balloon launches will be conducted at Esrange, the Swedish Space Corporation's space operations center. Suites of instruments at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna and the Spitsbergen (Norway) station of the Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change will also contribute measurements.

Location: The base of operations for the SOLVE campaign is Kiruna, Sweden (67.8°N, 20.4°E). Kiruna is located north of the Arctic Circle near the climatological average coldest region in the Arctic stratosphere.

Schedule: SOLVE instrument and science teams will be resident in Kiruna for three observation periods between November 1999 and March 2000.

Additional information on the SOLVE field campaign is available at the project's Web site http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solve/