IPY

From Friday, one of the largest international research programmes at least in the last 50 years is about to start. This program is going to concentrate on understanding climate change and will be focusing on the remotest locations on the globe, viz. the Antarctic and the Arctic. This program, code named 'International Polar Year (IPY)', will last over the two years with more than 60 institutions from all over the world, involving thousands of scientists taking part in more than 200 projects and will try to understand the role of mankind in causing climate change. The main points it will focus are: Changes in Snow and Ice, Global Linkages, People in the North and New Discoveries.

The University of Leeds is of course going to play a small part in this by being involved in understanding the atmospheric chemistry in the arctic. The role of our group is going to be limited to the role of halogens and nitrate radical in the lower atmosphere. This involves a field campaign in Hudson Bay, Canada where we will be making measurements using the DOAS technique.