My mother has always been affectionately known as the sunscreen Nazi by our family and friends. She never lets you go anywhere without your sunscreen, for good reason.
As you may or may not know, there are holes in the ozone layer over the poles. These are caused by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were used especially in refrigeration. Scientists at first were really stoked about the discovery of these molecules b/c they were so safe and thus perfect for refrigeration. Turns out they also reacted with and "killed" the atmospheric ozone, which protects the earth from the sun's dangerous solar radiation. Solar radiation causes sunburns and cancer in humans but also can completely wipe out certain species such as different amphibians. When the scientific community realized the problem, they helped pass the Montreal protocol which banned cfc's. So now we are monitoring the recovery of the ozone holes and layers as we have switched to ozone friendly refrigerants. We launch these ozone sondes once a week. The sondes measure ozone levels all the way up to 40 km above the surface, which is early (inner) space. Don't confuse atmospheric ozone with surface ozone though. Surface ozone comes from our burning of fossil fuels. This is actually a dangerous gas and can cause health problems. It's especially bad in the summer b/c somehow the ozone concentrates more in warmer temps. You'll see lots of cities have ozone warnings in which you should reduce daily activity. In recent years it's actually been a bit of a problem in RMNP b/c Denver area produces lots of ozone and certain plants in the Rockies are very susceptible to high ozone levels. We also are part of a network, here at Summit, measuring global surface ozone due to it's harmful effects on human health
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| prepping the ozone sonde |
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| prepping the ozone sonde. The little thing with a copper enclosure and 2 plastic containers (for anode and cathode) is the ozone sonde |
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| filling up the balloon in the SOB |
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| getting ready to launch the ozone sonde balloon |
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| the launch |
2 comments:
I think it's funny that one of your buildings is called the SOB.
haha, yea you know how people are with names here. Science and Operations Building. Sometimes I call it the Sob (like to cry). But when I hear people say SOB, I get that song "Son of a Bitch" stuck in my head.
The mobile science facility (MSF), some people want changed to Mobile Facility of Science (MFS) so they can call it Mother F-ing Science. haha
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