PROGRAM TITLE: 	Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Research
ACTIVITY STREAM: 	Observations, Processes
SCIENCE ELEMENT:  	Biogeochemical Dynamics

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

DESCRIPTION: Over the past two decades DOE ozone research has focused on 
the polluted regional troposphere.  More recently, DOE ozone research efforts 
have expanded, in response to the National Energy Policy Act, to include the 
global free-troposphere and the mid-latitude, lower stratosphere.  Objectives 
of the DOE Ozone Project are to: 1) improve estimates of ozone and uv-B 
trends; 2) improve understanding of the chemical and dynamic processes 
controlling ozone formation and destruction; 3) develop improved 
predictions of future ozone concentrations and their climatic interactions.  
These objectives follow from specific DOE information requirements (an 
identified subset of research and evaluation needs in IPCC, WMO, and UNEP 
science assessments), and are being met via strong interaction with other 
federal agencies and international organizations, and are intended to 
maximize programmatic benefit to policy analysts.  Such activities include:  1) 
augmentation and quality assurance of ozone and uv-B monitoring networks 
(particularly WMO Global Atmospheric Watch); 2) systematic reevaluation 
and interpretation of historical ozone measurements; 3) specific research on 
chemical mechanisms for ozone formation/destruction, 
(sensitivity/uncertainty evaluation of existing kinetics parameterizations and 
determination of previously undiscovered and unquantified mechanisms); 4) 
evaluations of joint action of transport and chemistry in determining the 
state of mid-latitude, lower stratospheric ozone, through global models and 
other diagnostic tools;  5)  advanced instrumentation development for lower 
stratospheric chemical measurements.

STAKEHOLDERS: International measurement and modeling communities 
rely on atmospheric ozone data produced by an international group of 
organizations including DOE.  DOE efforts directly support the WMO GAW 
global network and studies to improve and quality-assure long-term 
measurements of ozone profiles and surface uv-B.  DOE research on 
reexamining historical ozone data observed by the Dobson network directly 
supports the improvement of the data for policy analyses.  Composite 
chemical models of global ozone as well as other products, produced through 
joint activities, will be used as primary policy tools.  The research is being 
coordinated closely with the International Ozone Commission, the WMO, 
and the UNEP.  Future energy policy analyses will use the Ozone Project's 
products as a primary information source.  This information base will also 
contribute significantly to future international analyses performed by 
WMO/UNEP.  The research contributes to IGBP and IGAC programs that are 
essential for evaluations being conducted by a wide range of researchers and 
policy analysts.   These umbrella programs also offer the opportunity to 
rapidly assimilate external data for DOE policy-analysis application.

SHORT-TERM POLICY PAYOFFS: The research is directly relevant to  the 
question of how ozone and other pollutants affect surface uv-B, and also how 
uv-B is changing in response to these pollutants.  It is relevant also to the 
evaluation of long-term ozone trends, at mid-latitudes, in the lower 
stratosphere and upper troposphere.  Models for evaluating and projecting 
ozone/uv-B trends and their causal factors are essential.  The research 
products will provide improved tools for policy evaluations of ozone trends, 
their relation to energy production, and their associated implications for 
human populations and the Earth's ecosystem.

PROGRAM CONTACT: Michael R. Riches, DOE, ER-74, Washington DC 
20585, 301-903-3264