Apr 28 1975
From The Space Library
NASA announced the beginning of a broad program of stratospheric research to determine the effects of natural and manmade pollutants on the earth's ozone shield. In a cooperative effort with other Federal agencies, universities, and private industry to assess the threat posed by Freon, a trade name for gases used as refrigerants and in aerosol spray cans, NASA would use high-altitude U-2 aircraft, balloons, sounding rockets, and satellites to measure amounts of these compounds and their decomposition products already in the upper atmosphere. These data combined with data obtained in laboratories would help to determine the validity of predictions of Freon induced ozone depletion in the stratospheric layer. Some scientists feared that a serious reduction of the protective ozone and a resulting increase in the amount of ultraviolet light striking the earth could increase the incidence of skin cancer and could change the average temperatures of the earth's atmosphere.
The NASA program, managed by the Office of Space Science, emphasized basic research needed to understand the physical and chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere; this understanding was necessary to the assessment of changes caused by human activity. (NASA Release 75-124)
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