Ongoing projects
APE - GAIA CAMPAIGN
USHUAIA Sep. 15 - Oct. 15 1999
Financial Times (London)
October 9, 1999, Saturday LONDON EDITION 1
SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Pg. 07
Soviet-era spyplane spies on ozone hole
by Ken Warn in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego
Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego
The M55-Geophysica spy-plane was once the pride of the Soviet secret
services, unknown outside intelligence circles and unlisted in aircraft
reference works.
But the hush-hush high-altitude aircraft has come out of the shadows, if not out of the cold. The M55 will this month complete a series of scientific flights over Antarctica in an Italian-led project to find out more about the hole in the earth's ozone layer, and help predict its likely pace of recovery.
Last month the M55 completed a six-stage, 11-day odyssey from Moscow to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. Just getting the M55 to Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city, and keeping it operational, has posed a series of challenges for the team of 70 technicians and scientists.
The project - the Airborne Polar Experiment-Geophysica Aircraft in Antarctica (APE-GAIA) - has been backed by about euro 10m (£6.5m) of funding from the European Union and individual European countries. It has involved the participation and goodwill of scientists, technicians and officials from countries including Russia, Germany, Britain, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, the US, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, under the auspices of the Italian Antarctic Research Progamme.
"Only the Italians could negotiate their way through all this," said Bruno
Carli, scientific head of the project.
The end of the Cold War, and the former Soviet defence establishment's
desperate need for cash, led the Russians to offer the aircraft for leasing,
making the project possible.
Technicians from the Myasishchev Design Bureau (MDB), the company which built the aircraft for the Soviet Defence Ministry in 1988, worked overtime in often difficult circumstances to adapt the aircraft to take its new payload of complex scientific equipment.
The experiment suffered a financial setback when one of the instalments on the five-year lease failed to reach MDB. The Russian bank handling the transaction had collapsed.
The M55 also flew into squalls when it arrived in Argentina. The aircraft's hangar was only partially completed, and doorless, leaving the equipment at the mercy of the sub-zero temperatures of Tierra del Fuego. However, a last-minute agreement between the contractor and the cash-strapped provincial government meant the hangar was ready for operations in time.
Even with its newly installed doors, the hangar is chilly. Quilts, and the heat from strategically placed desk lamps, are used to keep some of the sensitive equipment from freezing. "These are campaign solutions," said logistics chief Mr Giuseppe De Rossi, rubbing his hands to keep warm.
The sorties over the Antarctic are the culmination of a four-year campaign of modifications, test flights and an initial series of scientific flights over the Arctic.
Two pilots take it in turns to don space suits and fly the partially pressurised, long wing-span M55 at an altitude of up to 20km above Antarctica - and to land it in the often dangerous cross-winds.
The experiment is not the first to use a spyplane to study the ozone hole. The US ER-2 stratospheric aircraft, a modified version of the U2 spy plane, was used in two previous campaigns. But the twin-engined M55 can carry more equipment, allowing both the sampling of the air immediately around the aircraft and the use of remote sensing techniques.
With the phasing out of ozone-damaging CFC gases, the ozone layer should revert to the condition of the late 1970s by 2050, said Mr Carli. "But there are still several approximations in this estimate, and the aim of this campaign is to improve our understanding of the processes involved."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: October 09, 1999
Inter Press Service
October 6, 1999, Wednesday
ENVIRONMENT:
A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT OZONE LAYER DEPLETION
by Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 6 - A Russian aircraft designed for espionage missions has become the centerpiece of a program uniting 80 scientists from around the world for an "in situ" study of atmospheric ozone depletion over the South Pole.
The month-long project calls for six flights of the M55 Geophysica aircraft, which is capable of flight in the stratosphere -- the layer above the atmosphere, more than 21,000 meters above the earth's surface.
The Geophysica measures 37 meters in length and reaches a velocity of 750 km per hour. It has a five-hour flight capability, even at critical temperatures, such as the 80 degrees below zero Celsius currently reported in the research area.
The most reliable studies of the ozone layer so far have been carried out over the Arctic Ocean and in Europe, using the same Geophysica, as well as the U.S. ER-2 aircraft of similar construction.
"The program objective is to study the chemical and physical processes responsible for thinning the ozone layer, which protects the biosphere from ultraviolet radiation," explained Ricardo Ozu, an engineer at Argentina's Antarctic Institute.
The mission is the first to be performed over the South Pole with an aircraft of this type. Until now, the evolution of the ozone layer has been followed from land using ozone-probing balloons and satellites. The phenomenon had never before been directly observed.
A Russian pilot flies the missions alone, while scientists work on land in Ushuaia, capital of Argentina's southernmost province, Tierra del Fuego. Another 17 research bases are also participating from both Antarctica and Punta Arenas in Chile.
The project known as APE-GAIA (Airborne Polar Experiment – Geophysica Aircraft in Antarctica), is coordinated by Bruno Carli of Italy, and is financed by the European Union in order to obtain better information about industrial development's impact on the ozone layer.
Other APE-GAIA scientists come from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.
The research team chose this time of year to perform the study because measurements must be taken while the ozone layer is thinnest (August-September) and during the layer's recovery (October-November).
The layer of ozone gas, located 15 to 50 km above the earth's surface, filters the sun's ultraviolet radiation. A reduction in this natural defence increases the risk of skin cancer among humans, damages plant life and kills off the microscopic marine plankton essential to ocean ecosystems – and ultimately affects all ecosystems.
In the mid-1970s, scientists found evidence that the ozone layer was becoming thinner, and they reported that ozone loss continues at an annual rate of at least three percent, primarily as a result of industrial emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halones.
The significantly reduced ozone levels over Antarctica, however, can be partially attributed to atmospheric currents over the region.
Atmospheric scientists report that wherever there is a high concentration of CFCs, ozone is reduced. There are natural processes that produce CFCs, but these are soluble and dissipate relatively quickly, while industrial CFCs are stable and long- lasting.
Computer models show that the ozone layer could return to its 1980 levels within 50 years, but only if the world stops all CFC emissions now, said Carli.
"This is something we will be able to confirm with the Geophysica flights," he added.
The project concludes this month with a report that will be presented to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which regulates the use of CFCs and halones to prevent further damage to the ozone layer.
The Protocol arose from an agreement signed in 1987 by a vast majority of nations from the industrialized North and the developing South, committing to reducing gas emissions. The agreement took effect in 1989.
The APE-GAIA project began research design in 1995 as a result of a scientific cooperation agreement between Italy and Russia, which later grew to include the participation of several academic institutions from other countries.
Research results will be known almost immediately because, as the aircraft records information, it sends the data to the various research bases, where it is collated with the data collected from land over the years.
- Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA), Italy, is the main funding agency of the APE-GAIA campaign; it supported the development of Italian instruments, and contributed to their integration on board the aircraft.
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Italy, supported the development and the integration of most Italian instruments.
- European Union (EU), supported the development of some scientific instruments.
- Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF), Germany, supported the development of German scientific instruments.
- The project has also been made possible by contributions from the individual institutions which developed the scientific instruments.
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy, takes care of the scientific co-ordination of the project through Dr. Bruno Carli of the Istituto per la Ricerca sulle Onde Elettromagnetiche "Nello Carrara" (IROE).
- Ente nazionale per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA), Italy, is responsible for the logistic co-ordination the APE-GAIA campaign.
- Myasishchev Design Bureau (MDB), Russia, is the company in charge of the transformation and operative management of the M55-Geophysica platform.
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
- INSTRUMENTS
- MIPAS-STR: Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (IMK-FZK), Germany
- SAFIRE-A: Istituto per la Ricerca sulle Onde Elettromagnetiche "Nello Carrara" (IROE-CNR), Italy
- GASCOD-A: Istituto per le Scienze dell’Atmosfera e dell’Oceano (ISAO-CNR), Italy
- ECOC, SORAD, FLASH: Central Aerological Observatory (CAO), Russia
- FISH: Institut für Stratosphärische Chemie, Forschungszentrum Jülich (ICG-FZJ), Germany
- FOZAN: CAO, Russia and ISAO-CNR, Italy
- HAGAR: Institut für Meteorologie und Geophysik, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
- MAS: Istituto per la Fisica dell’Atmosfera (IFA-CNR), Italy
- ABLE: La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
- MAL1 and MAL2: Observatory of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- METEOROLOGY AND MODELING
- University of L’Aquila, Italy
- University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (IMK-FZK), Germany
- AUXILIARY MEASUREMENTS
- British Antarctic Survey (BAS), United Kingdom
- Centro Austral De Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC), Argentina
- Dirección Nacional del Antártico/Istituto Antártico Argentino (DNA/IAA), Argentina
- Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland
- Instituto Nacional de Meteorología (INM), Spain
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacials (INPE), Brasil
- Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain
- Istituto per la Fisica dell’Atmosfera (IFA-CNR), Italy
- Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN), Argentina
- State University of New York (SUNY), United States of America
- Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG), Chile
- Universidad National de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA), Argentina
Personnel in Ushuaia Personnel of Auxiliary Measurements
Partirà il 15 settembre dalla base argentina di Ushuaia
la campagna di misure del Progetto APE-GAIA
Il PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide) - che si svolge sotto l’egida del Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica e vede l’ENEA come Ente attuatore d’intesa con il CNR per i contenuti scientifici - ha organizzato la Campagna di misure del Progetto APE-GAIA (Airborne Polar Experiment - Geophysica Aircraft In Antarctica) che avrà inizio il 15 settembre ad Ushuaia in Argentina e si concluderà a Siviglia (Spagna) il 28 ottobre. Al Progetto, diretto dal dott. Bruno Carli del CNR, partecipano anche ASI, ESF, Commissione Europea e numerosi Università ed Enti di ricerca nazionali ed internazionali.
Il Progetto si pone l’obiettivo di perfezionare la conoscenza dei fenomeni atmosferici e l’affidabilità delle previsioni a medio e lungo termine sui mutamenti globali dell’atmosfera attraverso l’osservazione della stratosfera antartica; in particolare, verrà osservata l’evoluzione del buco dell’ozono nel periodo primaverile, vale a dire nel periodo in cui si ripristinano nella regione polare le condizioni originali precedenti alla distruzione dell’ozono.
Per l’attuazione del Progetto è previsto l’impiego di un aereo stratosferico russo (M-55 Geophysica) capace di raggiungere i 21 Km di quota, che compirà 6 voli nell’area polare antartica con un carico di strumentazione scientifica innovativa e utilizzata per la prima volta su un aereo stratosferico, con possibilità di compiere osservazioni nell’alta troposfera e nella bassa stratosfera delle medie e alte latitudini. Circa 20 stazioni da terra effettueranno misure coordinate in concomitanza con i voli dell’aereo, sia in Antartide che lungo le rotte di trasferimento da Siviglia a Ushuaia e viceversa, mentre quattro gruppi di modellisti saranno impegnati nelle previsioni e nell’interpretazione dei dati. Complessivamente, le attività operative vedranno il coinvolgimento di più di cento ricercatori e tecnici.
Informazioni puntuali sull’andamento della missione saranno disponibili grazie all’attivazione di un apposito sito WEB a Ushuaia.
Il 16 settembre i ricercatori della missione parteciperanno a Ushuaia alla celebrazione della "Giornata Internazionale per la Conservazione dello Strato d’Ozono", promossa dall’UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) in concomitanza con il 160° anniversario della scoperta dell’ozono.
Tale Campagna Antartica rappresenta la fase finale di un rilevante sforzo di coordinamento e collaborazione scientifica a livello internazionale e la conclusione di un significativo piano di campagne sperimentali, di cui due effettuate in Italia presso gli aeroporti di Pratica di Mare (1996) e di Forlì (1998) e una in Artide presso l’aeroporto di Rovaniemi (Finlandia – 1997), per la messa a punto della strumentazione a bordo dell’aereo.
Roma, 6 settembre 1999
