On its mission “SouthTRAC”, the German research aircraft HALO will investigate the southern atmosphere and its effects on climate change in September and November 2019.
The most important goal of the first phase of the SouthTRAC (Transport and Composition of the Southern Hemisphere UTLS) campaign is to investigate gravity waves on the southern tip of South America and over Antarctica. The second phase of the campaign in November will focus on the exchange of air masses between the stratosphere and the troposphere. During the transfer flights between Europe and South America, the scientists will also investigate the influence of the current fires in the Amazon rainforest on climate. In addition to the team of the atmosphere researcher Professor Andreas Engel from Goethe University, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the research centre Jülich, and University Mainz have been in charge of the scientific planning. Groups from the Universities in Heidelberg and Wuppertal are also involved.
Trace gases such as ozone and steam are effective greenhouse gases, and play an important role in climate change. Since the end of the 1980’s, the Montreal Protocol regulates substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) because they thin out the ozone layer. It will take many decades, however, for the ozone layer to recover, especially the large ozone hole in Antarctica. In the campaign “SouthTRAC”, researchers now want to investigate in detail what this means for climate change in the Southern Hemisphere.
In addition to high levels of chlorine and bromine, the most important atmospheric requirements for the formation of the ozone hole above Antarctica are low temperatures and a reduced exchange of air masses with mid-latitudes. The Antarctic polar vortex is responsible for this. “We want to see how much chlorine and bromine is available to deplete the ozone in the lower stratosphere, especially in the polar vortex of the Southern Hemisphere, where the ozone hole is formed every year,” explains Professor Andreas Engel.
Continue reading at Goethe University Frankfurt
Image via Goethe University Frankfurt
