Sint-genesius-rode –

The royal meteorological institute in Ukkel (belgium) is celebrating today/Thursday, fifty years of ozonmetingen. The Belgium meteorological service, is a pioneer in the field of these measurements, along with Switzerland and Germany. The metingenreeks three times per week, for half a century – is one of the top five longest in the world, and it is of particular importance because they are the whole of the period of time over which the famous ozone hole at the south pole, came to the present day.

This may be due to a wide range of measurement today, the impact of the ban on the use of CFCS (Chloro-fluoro-carbon) to ozone layer and to adopt it.

“The measurements are actually started out of scientific curiosity,” says Hugo De Backer, head of the Department of weather monitoring tools for the RMI. “We’re hoping with the observations of our weather to improve. It was the time of the satellite. After the chemists had suggested that the CFCS of the ozone layer may be reduced, shifted our focus. It has been found that there is a hole in the ozone layer sitting over the Antarctic in the spring and in the southern hemisphere. This phenomenon demanded that, from then on, all of the attention. Please note that we do have, the hole is not detected, the measurements are taken at our degree of latitude, showed that the ozone layer has been damaged as it was.”

The ozone layer is very important. Although ozone is only 0,001 per cent of the atmosphere, it is nevertheless essential to life on earth, to protect it from the attack of the strong ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The greatest concentration of ozone is located approximately 22 miles above the earth’s surface. While ozone in the high atmosphere, to be useful, it can be a lot of ozone that is close to the surface of the earth to be dangerous. There, it causes any health risks in people with a compromised immune system, having heart disease and problems with the respiratory system.

Balloon

The measurements in sint-genesius-rode with ozonsonde, which is attached to a weather balloon. “A ozonsonde, it is a very simple instrument, consisting of a pump, which draws in air from and it is a wet battery, it leads,” says De Backer. “The fluids in the battery and the reduce ozone to oxygen in the air to produce a flow of the electric current is a measure of the ozone concentration.”

“Our measurements are, with a weather balloon, make a series of vertical measurements at the earth’s surface to 30 km altitude,” says De Backer. “On the surface of the earth, there can be significant regional differences in the ozone concentrations due to air pollution. Higher up in the atmosphere varies with the concentration over longer distances. Due to our long-term metingenreeks, we can see that the ozone layer will slowly recover.”

now, this recovery has been due to the measures taken in the Montreal Protocol, in 1989, the phasing out of the production and use of CFCS was recorded in the cool – and the greenhouse gases that deplete the ozone layer, do a line break. The results of the ban on CFCS, and are now only visible to you. This is due to the long lifetime of the CFCS.

volcanic eruptions

The long-metingenreeks also offers scientific insights. Thus, it is clear that the eruption of the volcano mount Pinatubo on the Philippine island of Luzon, in 1991, had a major impact on the ozone layer. “The blast was apparently a mechanism in motion that is fast ozonafbraak made,” says De Backer. “The chemists have focused on the phenomenon of the paid up and came to the conclusion that a volcanic eruption is the emission of particles, a series of chemical reactions that ozonafbraak speed things up.”

the results of The measurements to be used for the calibration of satellites in view, that their equipment is not as deep in the atmosphere, as can be imagined, and which is at a much lower resolution measurement, so the accuracy is there, with some further improvement.

Also, with this information, examine the links between changes in the vertical distribution of ozone concentrations and climate change.

on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the readings come up in sint-genesius-rode many of the specialists together, to discuss the importance of ozonmetingen so to speak. Among them, some prominent experts, such as Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, and Sophie Godin-Beekmann, president of the International Ozone Committee. “Thanks to the continuous quality control of long-term time series of ozonmetingen there may be a small country, Belgium has a unique contribution to make to the ozononderzoek”, says De Backer.

for More about RMI, The summer isn’t over yet: next week, again in the direction of 27 degrees celsius in The summer isn’t over yet: next week, again in the direction of 27 degrees, Lovely sunny day, with temperatures up to 24 degrees, and then cooler late Summer in the country on Saturday and Sunday are sunny and temperatures are expected to