The station will plug serious and significant ground and satellite-data gaps in the regional and global atmosphere monitoring networks. Currently, the nearest similar ozone monitoring stations are between 800km and 3,340km away in Esfahan in Iran and Nairobi in Kenya respectively. For halocarbon measurements, the nearest stations are in the Central Europe and China.

The UNEP's announcement came two days after the Gulf countries, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, demanded the need for setting up a full-fledged Ozone Layer Monitoring Station in the region at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and 20th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol that concluded here yesterday

Qatar promptly responded to the UN agency's announcement by offering $ 3.5mn for Ozone Layer Research. The proposed station is expected to be launched at Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP)Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP). At the meeting, Qatar also announced its plans to establish a global centre of excellence for research and development of ozone and climate friendly technology, equipment and appliances.

Scientists believe the Qatari Station will help understanding whether the ozone layer-the thin or gas that surrounds the planet protects all life on earth from the sun's harmful rays-is actually recovering after decades of chemical attack.

Under UNEP's Montreal Protocol, over 90 percent of ozone-damaging gases have already been phased out and it is predicted that the layer might have fully recovered by 2060s . However, without direct scientific observations around the world, governments cannot know whether improvements are genuinely taking place or whether there is a need to step up or re-focus the response.

The proposed Ozone Layer Monitoring Station in Qatar will assist space agencies to validate earth observing satellites with data they gather on behalf of researchers across the globe right around the globe. The data collected and analysed at the new observatory in Qatar will be archived at various international data centres, such as the World Meteorological Organisation's World Ozone and UV (ultraviolet) Radiation Data Centre in Canada and World Data Centre on Greenhouse Gases in Japan. The data will thereby be available for the global scientific community.

© The Peninsula 2008

 

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