This is a joint project involving the University of Wyoming, the University of Wisconsin, NOAA/ERL/GMCC and Environment Canada-Atmospheric Environmental Service. The intention is to study the physical, chemical and radioactive properties of stratospheric clouds (PSC's) and the relationship between PSC's and the annual springtime destruction of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica. A variety of instruments will be flown on balloons launched from South Pole by NOAA personnel during the late winter and spring. A new instrument, called a PSCsonde, has been developed for this purpose. It can detect PSC's and stratospheric aerosols, and give some information on size distributions. In addition, measurements will be made of water vapor, ozone, temperature, winds, infrared heat flux up and down, and, on some flights, nitric acid vapor. Approximately 40 flights are planned over a two-year period.
