<p>NASA’s DC-8 research plane flew over the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica on Oct. 14, 2017. The flight was part of the Atmospheric Tomography mission to survey over 200 gases as well as airborne particles on a 30-day tour around the world. This Antarctic flight coincides with the annual formation of the hole in the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. The scientists aboard the DC-8 are interested in studying the gases present below the ozone hole to better understand the chemical processes at work in this region of the atmosphere. In addition, the flight reprises research flights made 30 years ago by the DC-8 during the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment (AAOE), a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and other international agencies and universities.
</p><p>The AAOE flights in 1987 paired the DC-8 with the ER-2 research plane to follow up on the British Antarctic Survey’s 1985 report characterizing the ozone layer’s destruction. The ozone layer protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet light from the Sun that can damage DNA and, for example, cause skin cancer and other health problems. In the 1980s scientists discovered that ozone was being depleted, and the AAOE data confirmed that it was indeed the result of chlorine and bromine chemistry caused by human-emitted chlorofluorocarbons, which were banned by the Montreal Protocol in the same year.
</p><p>The Atmospheric Tomography’s fall 2017 mission is the third of four deployments that will take place through 2018. It is an Earth Venture mission funded by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and is managed by the Earth Science Project Office at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. 
</p><p>Read more: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions">www.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions</a>
</p><p>Credit: Caltech/Paul Wennberg
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/37988456046/">NASA’s DC-8 over Palmer Peninsula</a>