ESA - Observing the Earth - Understanding Our Planet - Satellite instrument helps tackle mysteries of ozone-eating clouds

Space and Earth Monitoring

About Observing the Earth

How does Earth Observation work?How to get Earth observation data Integrating Earth Observation in your job Earth Observation users speak

Opportunities with us

Education & training International cooperation Milestones & announcements EO conferences organised by ESA

Multimedia

Image Gallery Video Gallery Online resources RSS feeds

Services

Calendar

Article Images

Satellite instrument helps tackle mysteries of ozone-eating clouds

10 April 2006

Back to article

Polar stratospheric clouds are often referred to as mother-of-pearl clouds because of their iridescent appearance. These clouds form in altitudes between 20 and 30 kilometres when temperatures drop to minus 80 degrees Celsius and play a vital role in ozone destruction.

Credits: David Hay Jones/tunc.biz

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPG (Size: 467 kb)

10 years of ozone hole monitoring by GOME and SCIAMACHY

Credits: DLR

Back to article

A view of Antarctica's mountain wave and nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) temperatures for 2003. Blue contours show the overall temperatures, while green contours show the NAT local formation.