Kiruna, 24/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Philippe Busquin, European Commissioner for Research, launched on 21 January in Kiruna (north polar circle in Sweden) the Theseo 2000 campaign meant to explore the phenomenon of ozone depletion. Mr Busquin noted that, with this project, the EU is pooling resources with the United States, Japan, Russia, Norway, Poland and Switzerland, and that ozone measuring campaigns like the one in Kiruna are necessary to give a sound basis to future decisions.
A statement by the Commission recalls that, towards the end of last November, the European Space Organisation's ERS-2 satellite detected abnormally low ozone values over the United Kingdom, northern Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Baltic, as well as over the entire Arctic. European research has focused on the causes of this loss of ozone over the northern mid-latitudes because this is where a majority of European citizens live. To collect exact data on this phenomenon, four aircraft (two European and two American) and more than 20 balloons will be launched to measure the ozone content in the critical stratospheric zone at an altitude of 20 km. The results of this campaign will be known in March.