Earth Probe showed a clear ozone minimum over the polar region during February and March. Ozone Loss - During winter, stratospheric winds tend to form a vortex around the North Pole. This becomes a container for cold, high altitude air where ozone is lost due to chemical changes motivated by the creation of clouds in the stratosphere. Earth Probe showed a clear ozone minimum over the polar region during February and March. Second, Kiruna's extreme northern latitude is ideally located for measurements of the lower stratospheric polar vortex.
Ozone is vital to life on earth because it blocks harmful ultra-violet radiation from the sun.
To better understand the nature of atmospheric ozone, a team of international researchers converged on the Swedish town of Kiruna, located far in the north. What they found suggests that ozone loss may increasing. Using instruments flown on sophisticated aircraft, balloons, and orbiting spacecraft, experts now believe that super-cold temperatures in the arctic stratosphere may be causing the formation of a type of cloud essentially lined with ozone destructive molecules. Scientists say this complex cooperative experiment will help them develop predictive models about how the Earth's atmosphere will behave as greenhouse gases rise in coming decades. This is NOT a finished production but does contain some narration.