Budget woes force closure of Canadian ozone-monitoring network
SEP 14, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025574
Nature : Canada’s environment agency has informed researchers that it intends to severely cut back its network of ground-based ozone-monitoring stations because of budget constraints. As Nature‘s Quirin Schiermeier reports, the news shocked atmospheric scientists around the world. Data from the network’s 17 stations helped to identify the widest-ever Arctic ozone hole: In March of this year, scientists reported that 40% of stratospheric ozone over the Arctic had been destroyed. Although instruments aboard satellites can also monitor ozone, experts say that ground-based measurements are essential for calibrating and validating space-based measurements. The decommissioning of Canada’s ozone network will also entail the loss of 776 jobs.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
