Education Report - Students Launch Weather Balloons to Study Ozone

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St	Students	United	University	VOA	air	all	atmosphere	data-gathering	filled
form	has	have	industrial	nationwide	ozone	receiver	says	scientific	students
that	the	to	ultraviolet

at Saint Louis University have launched weather balloons into sky above the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The States space agency, NASA, is paying for the project measure ozone gas. It is part of a study learn more about air pollution and our climate. The are getting the opportunity to carry out a real experiment. They used a laptop computer and a radio outside the St. Louis Science Center to communicate with devices on the balloon. Before launch, the students tested the instruments, and attached them to the weather balloon with helium. Gary Morris is a professor at Valparaiso in Indiana. He is the lead trainer for the study. The professor says NASA wants more information on because of how it affects our atmosphere. High above Earth, in the stratosphere, the ozone layer keeps harmful radiation from reaching the ground. But, in the lower , emissions from cars and other sources like petrochemical plants ozone pollution and smog. They cause unhealthy air conditions affect breathing. Jack Fishman leads the ozone study at . Louis University. He says new requirements that decrease pollution lowered ozone levels in American cities. But he notes pollution in remote areas continues to increase. He blames activity in East Asia for that pollution. Jack Fishman polluted air is being blown across the Pacific by currents in the upper atmosphere. He says ozone pollution slowed the growth of farm crops and forests. For Learning English, I'm Laurel Bowman.

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