The experiment was developed at the Heidelberg based Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics' Division of Atmospheric Physics. It is the work of researchers Christiane Voigt, Jochen Schreiner, Frank Arnold, Andreas Kohlmann, Uli Schild, Peter Zink, and Konrad Mauersberger. Niels Larsen from the Danish Meteorological Institute, Division of Middle Atmospheric Research also participated. The results show that water and nitric acid condense to form polar stratospheric cloud particles. These particles will then later provide the surfaces for chlorine activation.
Chlorine reacts with and destroys ozone molecules, making holes in the ozone layer.
Aerosol particles emitted into the atmosphere as dust, industrial emissions and biomass burning exert both a direct effect on climate by reflecting and absorbing shortwave solar radiation and an indirect effect by influencing the optical properties and lifetimes of clouds. Graphic image of role aerosols play in climate change. Improved understanding of aerosols will, in turn, improve predictions of future climate changes due to human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Laboratory studies and computer model calculations have advanced the knowledge on polar stratospheric cloud particle formation, composition, and reactivity. But a detailed chemical analysis within a cloud layer had never been achieved.