May 7 2002
From The Space Library
In an article published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists using data from NASA's high-altitude research balloon reported a discovery that, potentially, could improve the research methodology for studying gases that contribute to ozone-layer depletion. Although scientists already knew that reactive hydrogen gases destroy stratospheric ozone and were able to detect hydrogen peroxide from space, they had problems with computer models used to analyze hydrogen-peroxide concentration in the atmosphere. However, in the reported study, researchers funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise had compared a new predicted rate of hydrogen-peroxide formation with the levels of the gas measured by two instruments on board NASA's high-altitude research balloons. The new data had revealed a high degree of agreement between the actual and the predicted measurements. The researchers noted that, although their newly discovered rate of hydrogen-peroxide formation had no appreciable impact on rates of stratospheric ozone loss, they expected the findings would help to analyze the deleterious effects on Earth's ozone of other, less easily measured, hydrogen gases. (NASA JPL, “NASA Study Leads to Better Understanding of Ozone Depletion,” news release, 9 May 2002; L. E. Christensen et al., “Kinetics of HO2 + HO2 l H2O2: Implications for Stratospheric H2O2,” Geophysical Research Letters 29, no. 9 (7 May 2002): 1299.)
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