Ozone vertical profile changes over South Pole

Important changes in the ozone vertical profile over South Pole, Antarctica have occurred both during the recent period of measurements, 1986-1991, and since an earlier set of soundings was carried out from 1967-1971. From the onset of the 'ozone hole' over Antarctica in the early 1980s, there has been a tendency for years with lower spring ozone amounts to alternate with years with somewhat higher (although still depleted) ozone amounts. Beginning in 1989 there have been three consecutive years of strong depletion although the timing of the breakdown of the vortex has varied from year to year. Comparison of the vertical profiles between the two periods of study reveals the dramatic decreases in the ozone amounts in the stratosphere between 15-21 km during the spring. In addition, it appears that summer values are also now much lower in this altitude region

Trends in total column ozone measurements

It is important to ensure the best available data are used in any determination of possible trends in total ozone in order to have the most accurate estimates of any trends and the associated uncertainties. Accordingly, the existing total ozone records were examined in considerable detail. Once the best data set has been produced, the statistical analysis must examine the data for any effects that might indicate changes in the behavior of global total ozone. The changes at any individual measuring station could be local in nature, and herein, particular attention was paid to the seasonal and latitudinal variations of total ozone, because two dimensional photochemical models indicate that any changes in total ozone would be most pronounced at high latitudes during the winter months. The conclusions derived from this detailed examination of available total ozone can be split into two categories, one concerning the quality and the other the statistical analysis of the total ozone record

The latitudinal distribution of ozone to 35 km altitude from ECC ozonesonde observations, 1982-1990

Electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozone-sonde observations, made in recent years at ten stations whose locations range from the Arctic to Antarctica, have yielded a self-consistent ozone data base from which mean seasonal and annual latitudinal ozone vertical distributions to 35 km have been derived. Ozone measurement uncertainties are estimated, and results are presented in the Bass-Paur (1985) ozone absorption coefficient scale adopted for use with Dobson ozone spectrophotometers January 1, 1992. The data should be useful for comparison with model calculations of the global distribution of atmospheric ozone, for serving as apriori statistical information in deriving ozone vertical distributions from satellite and Umkehr observations, and for improving the satellite and Umkehr ozone inversion algorithms. Attention is drawn to similar results based on a less comprehensive data set published in Ozone in the Atmosphere, Proceedings of the 1988 Quadrennial Ozone Symposium where errors in data tabulations occurred for three of the stations due to inadvertent transposition of ozone partial pressure and air temperature values

Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio

Detection of a tropospheric ozone anomaly using a newly developed ozone retrieval algorithm for an up-looking infrared interferometer

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): D06304, doi:10.1029/2008JD010270.On 2 June 2003, the Baltimore Bomem Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (BBAERI) recorded an infrared spectral time series indicating the presence of a tropospheric ozone anomaly. The measurements were collected during an Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) validation campaign called the 2003 AIRS BBAERI Ocean Validation Experiment (ABOVE03) conducted at the United States Coast Guard Chesapeake Light station located 14 miles due east of Virginia Beach, Virginia (36.91°N, 75.71°W). Ozone retrievals were performed with the Kurt Lightner Ozone BBAERI Retrieval (KLOBBER) algorithm, which retrieves tropospheric column ozone, surface to 300 mbar, from zenith-viewing atmospheric thermal emission spectra. KLOBBER is modeled after the AIRS retrieval algorithm consisting of a synthetic statistical regression followed by a physical retrieval. The physical retrieval is implemented using the k-Compressed Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Algorithm (kCARTA) to compute spectra. The time series of retrieved integrated ozone column on 2 June 2003 displays spikes of about 10 Dobson units, well above the error of the KLOBBER algorithm. Using instrumentation at Chesapeake Light, satellite imaging, trace gas retrievals from satellites, and Potential Vorticity (PV) computations, it was determined that these sudden increases in column ozone likely were caused by a combination of midtropospheric biomass burning products from forest fires in Siberia, Russia, and stratospheric intrusion by a tropopause fold occurring over central Canada and the midwestern United States.NASA for its support through grant NAG5- 1156-7 for AIRS Validation and grant NNG04GN42G for development of AIRS trace gas products, and through a subcontract with JPL on the AIRS Project prime contract NAS7-03001 for continuing optimization and validation of AIRS trace gas products.