It is the purpose of this research to determine the nitrate concentration in snow and ice samples collected from Windless Bight, Antarctica. Due to the high accumulation rate at that site, high time resolution can be obtained, and it is expected that correlations can be made with known solar events that would have produced nitrogen compounds in the upper atmosphere. The technique may provide a means of determining past levels of solar activity. Measurement of recent levels of nitrates may also help test hypotheses that nitrogen is removed from the stratosphere by falling ice crystals as part of the processes that cause the annual ozone hole. This research is partially supported be AFOSR.
