Feb 22, 2005

Links to Ozone studies and Volcanic information

Links to Ozone studies and Volcanic information

http://www.unep.ch/ozone/index-en.shtml United Nations Environment Programme, Ozone Secretariat
Online copies of all relevant treaties, agreements and protocols concerning ozone, acess to on-line book store with

121 publications related to ozone.

http://www.oar.noaa.gov/atmosphere/atmos_al.html Aeronomy Laboratory. Links to 10 different NOAA research labs conducting research on awide variety of climate issues including the aeronomy lab which is researching stratospheric ozone depletion, tropospheric ozone pollution, data sets on tropical winds and mass spec particle analysis, research on intercontinental transport of manmade pollution.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/sbuv2to/ozone_hole.html
This website is for the climate prediction center, a branch of NOAA. It includes background information about ozone depletion, what's happening currently, where their data comes from and links to related websites.

http://www.al.noaa.gov/WWWHD/pubdocs/StratO3.html "Stratospheric Ozone Depletion (Antarctic, Arctic, and Global" (NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory). This site discusses past and recent research efforts at their lab in Antarctica. This site concentrates more on the process and goals of the research than the chemistry or concepts.

http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration website for oceanic and atmospheric information. The NOAA constantly monitors and researches stratospheric ozone by using satellite, airborne, and ground-based systems. This section of their site provides information on current and historical stratospheric ozone and climate data. You can also learn about the science of ozone, read recent ozone-related press reports, and get some answers to frequently asked questions.

http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/noah/flask/hcfc.html This website is operated by NOAA and the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, CO. The information on this site deals mainly with HCFCs, in regard to what they actually are and basic information on how they work as an ozone depleting species. The site also contains data and graphs concerning the increases in concentrations of selected HCFCs.

http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/info/ozone_anim.html The animation (which has a fairly long download time) shows the development of stratospheric temperatures as well as the ozone hole at the South pole for 1999. The site continues with an explanation of the Ozone hole and why there isn't one over North America. In the text regarding the lack of an actual hole over the United States the a dialogue regarding how volcanoes also impact ozone depletion is started. It is interesting to see a when not if contingency added to this topic.

http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ozwv/ozsondes/spo/ozone_anim2000.html "South Pole Ozone Hole" (Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory). This website features an animation of developing stratospheric conditions with ozone and temperature graphs from July until the present at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. There is also a section that discusses why ozone depletion is so much more of a problem over Antarctica than anywhere else.

http://remus.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Primary research focus of the JPL is on polar stratospheric clouds and ozone. Page has links to extensive publications list of research papers on this and related issues. Also has downlable spectrscopic data on several hundred molecules, numerous links to related sites.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02oct_1.htm Peering into the Ozone Hole. This is a NASA website dedicated to the Ozone Hole. This site has links to some of the articles released in 2000 and a good number of images of ozone levels in the stratosphere at varying times of the year. You can read an overall- easy to understand- summary of the goings on of ozone depletion cycles here. There is also a link to the Montreal Protocol Agreement, which I found so interesting I also linked it below.

http://www.wmo.ch World Metereological Organization. Site contains WMO antarctica Ozone Bulletin, ozone data maps for N. America, links to TVOS satellite images, ozone mapping spectrometer, Antarctic ozone and temperature cross sections and animation of the ozone hole at the S. Pole.

http://www.wmo.ch/web/arep/nhoz.html Provides a list of daily ozone maps in N. America.

http://www.knmi.nl/gome_fd Royal Netherlands Metereological Institute, GOME Fast Delivery Service
Provides access to near-real time data on ozone columns, stratospheric ozone profiles, clear sky UV indices and assimilated global ozone maps from GOME data. Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) is an instrument aboard the ERS-2 (European Remote Sensing) satellite, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1995. ESA uses four ground stations for downlinking ERS-2 data; they are located in Kiruna (Sweden), Gatineau (Canada), Prince Albert (Canada) and Maspalomas (Spain). GOME is a spectrometer, which means that it measures Earthshine spectra, that is: the sunlight which is reflected back into space by molecules in the atmosphere and by the surface. The instrument also measures the solar spectrum directly.

http://www-das.uwyo.edu/research.htm University of Wyoming Atmospheric Science web page
This is the homepage for the Atmospheric Science department of the University of Wyoming. Professor Terry Deshler conducts research on the ozone layer using ballonborne instruments. Most of the research has to do with polar stratospheric clouds in the Artic and Antarctic. You can read about this research under Deshler in the research section of the web page.

http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/ The Ozone Hole Tour-take a tour of the Yahoo! wesite of the week. The centre for atmospheric science has put together a website that takes you through information on The Discovery of the Ozone Hole, Recent Ozone Loss over Antarctica, The Science of the Ozone Hole, and the Latest Ozone Hole Research at Cambridge.

http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/ This is the University of Cambridge's Center for Atmospheric Science web sight. It has many links to other information sources. It also has a picture gallery and a job announcements page. There is an article at this sight about the upcoming European Symposium on Stratospheric Ozone to be held in September of 2002.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wozone0.htm This is an article from usatoday that talks about ozone depletion and how its confused with climate change. It has a lot of informative sites that you can go to and it also talks briefly about reduction in ozone depleting substances as well as info from the usatoday weather book.

http://www.safeclimate.net/newsandlibrary/article_detail.php?id=29 Congressmen argue with scientific research on climate and ozone polices with scientists and organizations like the WMO. It made me angry to read how some people in congress even debate whether there really is an ozone problem to begin with in the first place. It just goes to show how naive people really are.

http://www.coaleducation.org/issues/deplet.htm This site is all about the depletion of the ozone layer. It talks about the ozone layer in general and then goes into more detail about CFC's as well as the problems we are facing over both poles. Also there are supposedly going to be 200,000 extra skin cancer deaths by the year 2050 if things keep going the way they are. Lastly they talk about seeking substitutes and that the WMO has just released evidence that says the damage is much worse than we thought and it extends into the summer months, which is a problem because more people are outside during the summer exposing them to more UV-B rays.

http://www.enviro.org/artozne2.html It is an article from 1996 saying that the hole over the Antarctica is the worse it's ever been and is at record size. They said in September and October that year it peeked at 7.7 million square miles but has gone down to 6.9 million square miles.

http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_6_1.htm The title is called Stratospheric Ozone, the Protector and it is an intense site dealing with all aspects of ozone. It talks about the ozone's chemical makeup and how they interact with CFC's. It has charts and models of how these things work as well as pictures that help you understand what happens when certain chemicals interact with O3. It also has animation that shows you the destruction of ozone by a chlorine atom as well as activities you can go and do.

http://seawifs.gsfcnasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTMLperil_ozone_depletion.html I liked this web site because right off the bat it breaks down the ozone hole problem and many confusions that come along with the chemistry involved. Many people believe that the ozone itself is the problem and not the lack of ozone. The article then carefully explains CFC's and what they are and the chemical problems they produce.

http://Visibleearth.nasa.gov/ This site is very neat and is one of the reasons I think the ozone hole is a prolem many people are going to get into and deal with. The site allows you to get up to date information on the ozone hole and since we can get images of the actual hole the problem is able to be seen visually. I believe the images have an immense impact on people. The site also has links to TOMS which is the current images of the hole.

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/ This is a resource file sponsored by NASA that includes phone and e-mail contact information for ozone researchers, a brief glossary of terms and a summary of the effects of stratospheric ozone depletion.

http://www.toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ This is NASA's new official website of information, data, and images from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments. There are several different satellite images to choose from, showing up to date images of ozone concentrations in the stratosphere.

http://www.nilu.no/projects/nadir/o3hole/ This web site has links to very reputable studies and colleges that have volumes of information and hard numbers and statistics on the ozone hole. The site gives you a straightforward background and then gives you links for exploration into the current information coming in.

http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2000/09/091300ozonehole.jhtml This is a good article to summarize the ozone hole since its discovery in 1970. The site talks to the common persons understanding of chemistry and talks of how the depletion of this ozone shield will have very real effects on most people throughout the world. It also explains about the increase in UV-B rays and how it will cause a rise in skin cancer.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/ozone_city001005.html I liked this article because it highlights how vague the mainstream media likes to address the ozone hole or any other environmental problem. They choose to only tell the information that has happened but not the consequences or solutions to these problems. The story is approached from a sensationalist point of view that talks about this ozone hole coming to get these people like the ozone hole is the enemy and not our own pollution. The story highlights that a huge population was exposed to the hole but didn't actually address how it affected them.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/OzoneHole.htm A wonderful and colorful site is in store at this web address. The images of the ozone hole over the Antarctica are vivid while the step by step explanation and history of the ozone hole keys readers into the problem right away. The site encompasses more related subjects to the ozone hole then any other I browsed and goes into how each aspect of the environment will be affected.

http://www.ozone.fmi.fi/o3group/o3home.html This site portrays interesting site maps of Finland uv maps, ozone mapping spectrometer links, and research information, and monitoring stations for 4 sites in Finland monitoring uv light. Pretty interesting.

http://www.eco-action.org/dt/krill.html This site lists some other effects of harmful uv light uv b light on inhabitants of the polar region such as krill. there is a nice picture of krill, other links that show other pankton - even such things at kangaroos being affected by uvb light.
Pretty interesting on how food webs are affected.

http://www.niwa.cri.nz/ NIWA Homepage.This is the New Zealand's "National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research" homepage. There is a link to an Atmosphere and Climate page that has a lot of information on the Ozone problem including some Antarctic research. There is also information on New Zealand's Climate.

http://www.niwa.cri.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2000-10-02-1 This site details the low measurements that were recorded on October 2, 2000 for the ozone hole, along with a link that will forward you to a map of the ozone hole. the links on this site will give you information on where to buy publications. there is also the telephone number of the Scott Base in Antartica where this article comes from. If you want to contact the person directly about ozone in the artic, here is the telephone number.

http://katipo.niwa.cri.nz/lauder/ NIWA at Lauder Home Page
NIWA is New Zealand's "National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research". One of their research stations is located in Lauder on the South Island of New Zealand. Research focuses on understanding the physics and chemistry of the middle atmosphere. This includes ozone depletion, chemical modeling of the atmosphere, measurement of surface UV, modeling of radiative transfer through the atmosphere and at the surface, and measurement of trace chemical species in the atmosphere.

http://www.gcrio.org/ocp96/hilitec5.html Five ozone abstracts are listed here along with the complete references to look up the papers they came from. They involve:
Increases In UV Radiation Confirmed To Be An Important Public Health Problem;
Ice Cover In The Antarctic May Protect Phytoplankton From Adverse Impacts Of Increased Uvb: Ozone Depletors And Their Substitutes Broken Down By Soil Microbes; Some Fish Found To Be Especially Tolerant To Increases In Uv Radiation; 1994 Science Assessment On Ozone Depletion Published. If you are looking for a few research sources this might be a good find. LInks here list students and other items of interest.

http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_observ/7_8_96/p29.html This link is from a satellite carrying NASA Scatterometer and total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer instruments designed to measure global ocean surface winds, and atomospheric ozone content as part of an international climate change research project. I thought it was interesting

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/hole/holehome.html EPA Site on the Ozone Hole
This is the EPA's site on the ozone hole. This specific site deals with the Antarctic ozone hole and has a satellite map of the hole. There are links to pages describing ozone chemistry, ozone depletion over the world, and U.S. regulations.

http://www.sciencenews.org/20011222/fob4.asp
This is an article from the journal Science News announcing new evidence that certain ectomycorrhizal fungi emit ozone destroying methyl halides into the atmosphere. Researchers examined four different types of soil fungi and found that all emitted trace amounts into the atmosphere. These soil fungi are a natural example of ozone destroyers.
http://sedac.ciesin.org/ozone/docs/UNEPsummary96.html This site is from the United Nations Protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone hole. Within this site are sections for; Ozone and UV Changes, Health Effects, Effects on Terrestrial Ecosystems, Effects on Aquatic Ecosystems , Effects on Biogeochemical Cycles , Effects on Air Quality, Materials Damage , Future Effects Studies, Panel Members and Representatives. It comes from 1996.chemforlife.org

http://www.ciesin.org/TG/OZ/oz-home.html This website is operated by Columbia University in NYC. This site is broken into 5 different sections. The first is an overview of the issues surrounding ozone depletion. The other four sub-sections cover key topics in detail regarding the ozone issue. The topics are: CFCs and ozone depletion, Related health effects from increased exposure to UV-B radiation, Environmental effects of ozone depletion, and Policies and Responses to ozone depletion.

http://www.ciesin.org/TG/OZ/oz-net.html "Ozone Depletion and Global Environmental Change" is a nice succinct site with a bunch of links to sites with information about international environmental problems and policies designed to deal with them. Also gives a list of texts and documents that would be useful to those researching the international reaction to ozone depletion.

http://www.ciesin.org/TG/HH/ozhlthhm.html This site is called "Health Effects From Increased Exposure to Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) Radiation due to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion" and the title says it all. It has 5 good links to information on what ozone depletion does to biological activity, particularly humans. It covers everything from skin cancer to Ocular damage to immune system suppression.

http://phoenix.liunet.edu/~divenere/LI_Env/uvr.htm This site provides a good overview of info on UV rays and their relationship to ozone depletion. It alsao explains the UV scale and tells how each of the different levels of UV can effect human health, especially in relation to sunburning.

http://www.environment.govt.nz/ozone/ This site from the New Zealand government gives an overview of the problems surrounding ozone depletion. It also provides some good concise information about the chemicals that cause ozone depletion and their levels over places in Tasmania and Antarctica.

http://whales.greenpeace.org/environment/ozone.html This site gives a little info on the effects of the increasing ozone hole on wildlife, especially whales. These effects include a disruption of the photoplankton levels and cancer from the UV radiation.

http://www.life.ca/nl/52/lakes.html This article is good because it demonstrates how the problems of global warming, acid rain and ozone depletion are interrelated. This is a good example of the relationship[ of these three phenomenon from the boreal lakes of eastern Canada.

http://www.sepp.org/ozone/ozonefranklin.html This article "The Ozone-CFC Debacle: Hasty Action, Shaky Science" by S. Fred Singer was published in Technology: Journal of The Franklin Institute, and attempts to pick apart the evidence that CFC's cause ozone, claiming that the 1995 phase out is a hasty gesture and will hurt the economy more than it helps health. He has some decent points, but half of his references are to things that he wrote, so who knows how accurate his info is. But its an interesting article and is a good representation of the "other side".

http://www.sepp.org/ozone/ozone.html This is an awesome site, it has over 25 links to various articles surrounding the ozone-CFC debate and other discussions among scientists about the issue. It is very comprehensive and would be an excellent resource for anyone looking for info on CFCs and the controversies thereof.

http://lap.physics.auth.gr/ozonemaps/ This is the homepage for the WMO Ozone Mapping Centre. It has the latest "maps" of the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere, as recent as yesterday, as well as a nice archive with maps over the past few years, and a ton of links to sites about ozone and its depletion.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ozone-01e.html This is an article from SpaceDaily called "Scientists Confirm: North Pole Ozone Hole Trigger" discusses the possibiltiy and reasoning of an ozone hole over the North Pole. It also has some neat pictures detailing ozone depletion in that area.

http://www.uaf.edu/chem/simpson/strat/ozone_map.html On this site you can enter any date, as late as Dec of last year, (it says yesterday but it doesn't even go up to 2002) and it will give you the TOMS picture of the North Pole with color-coded ozone info for that day.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/OzoneHole.htm Solcom House. Solcomhouse is a combination of the words: Solar Computer House. Their goal is to provide the people of the world housing that is in sync and harmony with the environment. Their website provides volumes of information on numerous environmental and world issues such as the ozone hole. This portion of the site talks about the forming and discovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica. They go on to explain the consequences of ozone depletion on humans, other species, and ecosystems. One cool thing about this website is all the up to date news links they have about ozone and the ozone hole.

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/4030/index.html Another neat site on ozone depletion. Has links to a variety of pages with information on everything from CFCs to Volcanoes to books one can buy about ozone. Its a geo-site and doesn't have much sourcing of information, so I don't know how accurate it is, but it looks good. It has a nice timeline of ozone events.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1483/ozone.html The Cosmic Ray Deflection Society Of North America. This site is put out by The Cosmic Ray Deflection Society Of North America. Here they provide you with information about ozone, the ozone hole, and the deadly rays coming through it. Information about the highest cosmic ray ever recorded can be found on this website. their thoughts on what can be done to stop ozone depletion and mend the ozone hole is on the site too. This is an interesting society of people who have a lot to say, I recommend reading what they have to say.

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Key_Topics/The_Ozone_Hole/index.html British Antarctic Survey. This website provides great information about ozone and the ozone hole. There are terrific sections on climate change, evolution on the geosphere, and ozone holes of the future. The British Antarctic Survey team provides comprehensive information for everyone on ozone. Good links and news updates too.

http://environment.about.com/cs/ozone This website contains information about many different pressing environmental issues. Ozone depletion is one of the selections. The site offers information on an intermediate level about the chemistry and workings of ozone depletion and the substances involved. It also offers an abridged version of the scientific assessment of ozone depletion by the World Meteorological Organization.

http://environment.about.com/library/weekly/blozone5.htm This site was posted in 2001, but the scientific information seems to be current only through 1998. It explains what is happening to the levels of the different ozone-depleting gases. Also, it gives information about when recovery is expected, and what factors may play into that. Their data has also shown that the replacements for CFCs can already be seen in the troposphere and lower stratosphere.

http://www.europa.ev.int/comm/environment/ozone discusses current research techniques going on and that previously took place in the 1990's mostly. Has a really cool list on ozone depleteing substances and their ozone-depleteing potential.

http://www.state.ri.us/dem/programs/benviron/air/ozone.html I am from Rhode Island so that is why I liked this one. But also has daily report on air quality regarding ozone levels set up in three diffent sites. Has info on dangers in your home and what not to do.

http://www.greenpeace.org/~ozone Less scientific than radical environmentalist crazyness; but nonetheless very interesting. Scientists should now how the public feels. Definitely check out the slide show! Has a decent links page. If anything it gets you all revved up to stop the depletion of ozone.

http://oz.physat.uga.edu/ This website is operated by the University of Georgia. This site is dedicated to information about the National UV Monitoring Center located at the University of Georgia. The Center operates high spectral resolution spectroradiometers throughout the US. This equipment measures full sky UV-B and UV-A spectral flux. With this information, absolute irradiance and total column ozone concentrations are calculated.

http://www.awi-bremerhaven.de/MET/Neumayer/ozone.html This website is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, a leading German institute established as a public foundation in 1980. Since March 1981, members of this group have collected data both in the Antarctic, currently at Neumayer station, and in the Arctic, at Koldewey Station. In addition to taking various meteorological measurements, the foundation also uses RS80 radiosondes in helium balloons to conduct upper air ozone soundings. Both stations also measure various types of surface radiation using pyrgeometers. Numerous types of useful data, graphs and photographs are available here including a photo of a pyrgeometer and and a graph of ozone concentration measured in nanobars for 2002.

http://afeas.org/origin.html This website addresses the two programs set up by the chemical industry to look at alternatives for CFCs. These are the Alternative Fluorocarbons Environmental Acceptability Study (AFEAS) and the Programme for Alternative Fluorocarbon Toxicity Testing (PAFT). These programs were setup to see what alternative chemical compounds would work for applications that use CFCs, and then looked at what the effects of those alternative compounds would be on the environment and on human health. There conclusion was to switch to HFCs and to HCFCs so that those chemicals could have a sink while still in the troposphere. This site does not in detail address the adverse effects of these alternative chemicals.

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/mbr/mbrqa.html#q4 This website gives a comprehensive overview of Methyl Bromide. That is, what it is used for, and what its potential is for the destruction of ozone. This website also names some of the alternatives to Methyl Bromide as well as when it is scheduled to be phased out and by how much according to the Montreal Protocol.

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/aerosol.html Explains how aerosols from volcanoes rarely get into the stratosphere and when they do their life is significantly shorter than anthropogenic ozone destroyers such as CFCs. Volcanic aerosols just increase the rate at which Chlorine can break ozone molecules. There is also a graph showing the amount of aerosols that reached the stratosphere which were released during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 and how long it took for those aerosols to get out of the stratosphere.

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/volcano.html This page gives a short explanation of how volcanoes affect ozone. Though it has widely been claimed that volcanoes and the ocean put a lot of ozone depleting chlorine into the air, it has not stood up to scientific experiments. Though volcanoes emit HCl, they are rarely powerful enough to get into the lower stratosphere. Also, HCl is water soluble and most of it is rained out in the troposphere. In addition volcanoes give off enough steam that most of the HCl is taken care of at the time of eruption. Volcanoes occasionally put aerosols into the stratosphere, which provide a surface for Cl to destroy ozone on, but these aerosols do not stay in the stratosphere for long. Scientists have accounted for all the Cl in the stratosphere and have found that volcanoes are responsible for only 3% of it. This is a tiny amount compared to all of the anthropogenic sources. Also, there has not been very much volcanic activity during the most deleterious time for the ozone in the stratosphere.

http://www.bhs.berkeley.k12.ca.us/departments/science/APWEB/MECHAGODZILLA/html/meas.html
Details: This site does a basic job of explaining ozone measurement. Such as Dobson Units and TOMS satellites. This site also connects to other sites such as what is to be done about ozone depletion and sources of destroyers. All sites have very nice pictures which go a long way in describing ozone. It gives something tangible to something less that concrete.

http://www.shsu.edu/~chemistry/ESC440/PSC.html Has GIF illustrations included as explanation of some basic chemical reactions regarding ozone depletion by polar stratospheric clouds. An explanation of the polar vortex is included (something we touched upon in class but never fully discussed). There is also an interesting link to an animated explanation of James Lovelace's electron capture detector. The animation is fairly old but nicely put and quite elegant.

http://www.unep.org/ozone/mont_t.shtml 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This is the actual agreement of countries to begin control of ozone depleting substances. The agreement was drawn up in 1987 and put into effect in 1988; this site includes subsequent adjustments and amendments. Includes lists of ozone depleting substances, ozone depleting potential, and conditions of meetings, reporting, restrictions, and plans for future control.

http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/public/icd/jds/ozone/ozpamw7.htm The Antarctic ozone hole by Jonathan Shanklin. This is a site that is a "pamphlet" explaining how the ozone hole forms, including links to understanding many of the terms used to describe ozone, and methods of analysis and obtaining atmospheric data. Easy to understand, and describes some of the different locations of research and techniques of monitoring ozone throughout the world.

http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1999/11/112599/amission_7477.asp ENN stands for Environmental News Network, an online publication founded in 1993, working to educate people about international environmental issues by presenting "information from all sides so our users can make their own decisions." The page of particular interest for the environmental chemist is an article titled "Huge Arctic Ozone Study Begins" written in November 1999. The Arctic ozone study is a coalition of scientists from around the world working to measure levels of and changes in ozone in the winter of 1999. The project is titled the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). Within the text, color photographs include the following: a polar stratospheric cloud in the Arctic and a balloon similar to those used in the SOLVE study. The project is sponsored by NASA and joins with the European Commission's Third European Stratospheric Experiment on Ozone.

http://www.remtec.net/ RemTec International is an international corporation specializing in recycling various Halons, HFCs, CFCs, HCFCs, Freon, and other refrigerant gases. The site contains a number of internal links to news stories involving RemTec such as their selling of patented equipment to aid in China's halon phase-out, signing of an exclusive contract with Norway's National Halon Bank, reclaiming of halons at a General Motors Tech Center, and opening of a technical assistance office in Europe. RemTec International provides reclamation services and storage equipment for refrigerant gases, as well as recycling fire protection systems and separating combined refrigerant gases.


Volcanoes

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Hazards/NRC_Definitions/volcanic_gas.html This site lists what gasses are emitted from volcanoes, and a few of what the potential effects of those gases could be. Within 10 km of the vent, gases could hurt or kill plants and animals. Acids and ammonia in the gases can damage eyes and respiratory systems. The primary gas released is steam, followed by C02. This CO2 is heavier than air and can stay in depressions of the land and kill man and beast alike.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/Projects/Emissions/fsheet_fig1.jpg This drawing shows what the significant gases are that are released from a volcanic eruption. It also shows what happens to those gases in the atmosphere.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Projects/Emissions/vgas_fsheet.html This page describes why volcanoes are studied. The answer being that we might be able to tell more when eruptions will happen, and what the environmental effects might be. It speaks of the negative effects of the volcanic emissions on plants and animals and people such as suffocation, and respiratory ailments. It also mentions acid rain as a product of the HCl, and what affects that has on plant life and on leeching heavy metals into drinking water. This page also describes how volcanic gases are studied. Gases can be captured by hand at or near the vent, and they can also be picked up with an instrument flown behind an airplane. They also briefly discussed new remote sensors that can be dangerous places gathering data and sending it via radio waves.

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/gsc/pacific/vancouver/volcanoes/05_7_haz_e.php This is the natural resources page of Canada. It says that from the release of SO2 gas and steam there can be considerable acid rain after a volcanic eruption. The sulfur dioxide can also prove to be irritating or lethal in the gas form. Intense acid rain can collect in drinking water cisterns and leech heavy metals into them. Acid rain also has the potential to severely damage crops and wetlands.

http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/~fisher/gas.htm This page explores the different gasses that are emitted from volcanoes and what effects they have on the environment. It says that sulfate aerosols could have a cooling effect on the average temperature of the earth by reflecting incoming solar radiation. These same particles also play a role in forming acid rain. Not to fear, for these aerosols do not stay in the atmosphere for a really long time.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Projects/Emissions/framework.html This is the page that outlines and has links to the various aspects of the USGS's volcanic emissions and global change project. It describes their goals, what they are doing, and what they are finding. One of the most interesting things briefly touched on with this page is the notion of trying to "scrub" volcanoes with water to make the volcanoes emissions less hazardous.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Projects/Emissions/Reports/Spurr/spurr_b2139_abs.html Interested by the prospect of the scrubbing volcanoes as mentioned above I found this page. This explains that during the 1992 eruption of Mount Spurr in Alaska SO2 scrubbing was successful for all but the 3 explosive events. Negligible SO2 was coming out right before and after these explosive events with SO2 water scrubbing. This doesn't explain exactly how the scrubbing was done, but I am interested.

http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/eosvarekamp.html This page has a great quantity of information. Specifically, it addresses lakes found in volcanic calderas. There can be significant amounts of CO2 dissolved in the bottom of some lakes as there was in Cameroon 15 years ago. When the CO2 surfaced it spread out over the nearby village and killed a lot of people. Volcanoes can also make their lakes very acidic and this can alter the geochemistry of the area much more quickly than it would usually happen.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm At the bottom of the page under University of Wisconsin press release there is pertinent information regarding the supervolcano under Yellowstone. Studying the quartz and zircon in the past ash samples, geologists and chemists get an idea of what the hot spot process is like, and just how much ash is produced and where it goes. Evidence suggests that there could be another major eruption from this source in the next 100,000-1,000,000 years. However, it will likely be smaller than the previous.

http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wat/wq/BCguidelines/selenium/report2c_v3-02.htm Gives the basics of Selenium. Its major source in the environment is from volcanoes 100,000-1,800,000 kg/a.

http://www.eman-rese.ca/eman/reports/meetings/mercury/part3.html This is a page that describes some of the chemicals and chemical processes and origins that affect Canada. They have determined that only 3% mercury deposition can be attributed to volcanoes.