Word: solarity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...instruments. Once airborne, the DC-8 would bank south toward Antarctica, 1,000 miles away, fighting vicious winds before settling into a twelve-hour round-trip flight at altitudes of up to 40,000 ft. Along the way, the instruments continuously collected data on atmospheric gases, airborne particles and solar radiation high above the frozen continent. Meantime, parallel flights took off from Ibanez to gather additional atmospheric data at nearly twice the altitude. Manned by a lone pilot, a Lockheed ER-2, the research version of the high-altitude U-2 spy plane, made twelve sorties into the lower stratosphere...
...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; scientists are also concerned about the "greenhouse effect," a long-term...
...theory. Data from Punta Arenas, says Robert Watson, a NASA scientist involved in that study, made the verdict all but final. Nitrogen and ozone levels were down, but concentrations of chlorine monoxide were 100 times as great as equivalent levels at temperate latitudes. Says Watson: "We can forget the solar theories. We can no longer debate that chlorine monoxide exists and that its abundance is high enough to destroy ozone, if our understanding of the catalytic cycle is correct. We need to go back to the lab and resolve the uncertainty...
...capital and diplomatic charm to another high-risk international mission. If all goes according to plan, the Phobos probes will take off next summer for Mars. When they reach the Red Planet some 200 days and 118 million miles later, they will orbit for a time, taking data on solar physics. The first Phobos will match orbits with the moon for which it is named, a chunk of rock about 14 miles across believed by many astronomers to be an asteroid captured by Mars' gravity. The other will be a backup...
Some experts fear that the increasing U.S. reliance on reconnaissance satellites is creating a strategic Achilles' heel. Satellites in space are fragile systems, their sensors and solar arrays vulnerable to physical attack and a variety of electromagnetic radiation. "There is a great risk," says one Pentagon official, "in the increasing dependence of our whole military system on vulnerable space-based systems." Others, however, point out that satellites are protected by the vast distances in space and that they can be "hardened" to withstand various sorts of radiation and even physical contact...