Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/12/2007 - 16:38
Forums
South Pole Ozone Changes

In one of your latest journal, you've mentioned "Photochemistry" and it's relation with the Ozone layer. I have questions to ask you:

 1) since the presence of light winds are needed to observe "photochemistry", does it mean that you'd have to wait for the right moment to get the Ozone data?

2) Hallows. Does it have any relationship the production of Ozone Layer? Does the presence of Hallows shows that there's enough reflection of sunlight to get the Ozone data?

LaughingThanks

Wed, 01/02/2008 - 09:00

Elke Bergholz

Hi, thank you fo your questions.1. We tested the elevated surface ozone above the snow with the pink ballons do to photochemical interactions. This slight elevated surface ozone has nothing to do with the startospheric ozone layer. However, to test such surface ozone elevation we had to wait for the right conditions: bright sunshine and little wind.
2. Halo and ozone layer are two different things: Halos appear when the wind has stirred up enough crystals so that the sunlight gets refracted (broken) on the crystals . This is similar to the sunlight being refracted by the raindrops after rain in our area. Halos only appear when he right amount of crystals are in the air, when it is very cold and when it is sunny: the sommer time at South Pole are the perfect conditions for it, however, we do not see them everyday.
ELke Bergholz