South Pole Ozone Changes
Update
Meet the Team
Teacher - Elke Bergholz
Elke Bergholz teaches high school Biology at the United Nations International School in New York City. Over the course of her career she has taught Life Science, Physical Science, General and Honors Biology, Environmental Science, AP Biology, Biotechnology, Human Physiology, and Biology for the International Baccalaureate, an internationally accepted high school diploma. Ms. Bergholz has advised an after school river monitoring student group for several years and is a research mentor to several students completing independent biology research. Prior to teaching, Ms. Bergholz conducted research for many years in different parts of the world in marine biology, fisheries biology, and oceanography. Ms. Bergholz traveled to Antarctica in 1999 as a TEA teacher to collect data on atmospheric ozone and will return with Dr. David Hoffman to continue their studies.
Researcher - David Hofmann
David Hofmann began his career at the University of Wyoming, leading an atmospheric physics group that used large balloons to study the stratosphere. During the 1980’s his group was at the forefront of stratospheric aerosol and Antarctic ozone hole studies. In 1990 Dr. Hofmann assumed leadership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) global greenhouse gas and ozone monitoring efforts. His group at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, monitors important greenhouse gases at many sites around the world, including permanent stations in the Arctic at Barrow, Alaska, and the Antarctic at the South Pole Station.
Journals
January 14 and 15, 2008: Leaving the South Pole and Antarctica! Thank you and good by!
January 13, 2008, Retrospective of the life at the New South Pole Station: a photo journal.
January 12, 2007. The Dedication of the New Elevated South Pole Station
January 11, 2008. Getting ready for the New Station Dedication- Passing of time and Sir Edmund Hillary
Project Information
Where are They?
The team will be working from the South Pole Station in Antarctica. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is the southernmost continually inhabited place on the planet. Its name honors Roald Amundsen who reached the South Pole in 1911 and Robert F. Scott who reached the South Pole in 1912.
What are they Doing?
Ms. Bergholz traveled to Antarctica in 1999 as a TEA teacher to collect data on atmospheric ozone. Since then, ozone depletion and global warming have become even more urgent international concerns. Ms. Bergholz will join Dr. Hofmann once again at the NOAA Clean Air Facility at the South Pole Station to collect current data on atmospheric ozone to compare with the data they collected in 1999. Ms. Bergholz and Dr. Hofmann will attempt to measure the positive influences of the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. The group will be collecting information on atmospheric ozone (surface ozone, total ozone, and ozone profiles), carbon dioxide, and aerosols. Comparisons will be made to atmospheric data in other parts of the world in order to predict the influence that the Kyoto Protocol and other clean air policies might have.
Vocabulary
- Aerosols
- Greenhouse Gases
- Ozone
- Stratosphere
Tiny solid particles or liquid droplets that remain suspended in the atmosphere for a long time. Aerosols are produced by natural processes or human activities, such as volcanic dust, sea spray, smoke from forest fires, particles emitted during the burning of fossil fuels, etc.
Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect (the heating of the atmosphere). Some gases are naturally occurring in the atmosphere while others result from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
Ozone is a molecule made up of three atoms of oxygen. Ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere and provides a protective layer shielding the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. In the troposphere (the lower layer of the atmosphere up to approximately 15 km above the earth's surface), it is a chemical oxidant, a greenhouse gas, and a major component of photochemical smog.
The layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere and below the mesosphere (between 15 km and 50 km). Click here to see a diagram of the different layers of the atmosphere.
