Word: nasa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...other agencies to investigate a disturbing hole in the ozone layer high above Antarctica. At the same time, scientists were growing increasingly alarmed about the ominous evidence of the warming of the earth's climate, caused by the so-called greenhouse effect. Says Hoyle: "When we heard about the NASA Antarctica expedition, we knew we had an awfully good peg for a look at changing weather patterns...
Both aircraft were part of an unprecedented, $10 million scientific mission carried out by the U.S. under the combined sponsorship of NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the Chemical Manufacturers Association. The purpose: to find out why the layer of ozone gas in the upper atmosphere, which protects the earth's surface from lethal solar ultraviolet radiation, was badly depleted over Antarctica. The scale of the mission reflected an intensifying push to understand the detailed dynamics of potentially disastrous changes in the climate. The danger of ozone depletion is only part of the problem...
...physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., announced that his ground-based observations as a member of the 1986 Antarctic National Ozone Expedition pointed directly to a CFC-ozone link. "The evidence isn't final," he said, "but it's strong enough." Earlier this month, results from NASA's Punta Arenas project confirmed the bad news. Not only was the ozone hole more severely depleted than ever before -- fully 50% of the gas had disappeared during the polar thaw, compared with the previous high of 40%, in 1985 -- but the CFC connection was more evident. Notes Sherwood Rowland...
...Soviets have shared their knowledge about long-term spaceflight, mostly through informal contacts rather than formal publication. Says one NASA specialist: "We have a book summarizing these lessons. We've got their diets. We try to make our people very aware of what the Soviets have done, because our own experience is all short duration and our data base is very...
...away from the intensely political atmosphere of Moscow. Sagdeyev was at first concerned about neglecting his research when he was asked to assume control of the struggling space-science program at IKI in 1973. The position offered a measure of independence (though hardly on a level enjoyed by top NASA scientists), but it was still part of the rigid Soviet scientific bureaucracy. Recalls Sagdeyev: "It meant a big change in my life-style. There was a desire to do my own research and yet the obligation to run a large institution with many projects. But I didn't expect such...