Collection: NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Collection Title: DC-8 during takeoff in Kiruna, Sweden for the second flight of the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE)

Photo Description: DC-8 taking off from the Kiruna, Sweden, runway in January 2000. The weather at this town of 25,000, located north of the Arctic Circle, can be severe. Temperatures drop as low as 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. In December 1999, when the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) deployment began, there were 20 days of darkness. By mid-January 2000, there was 5 hours of daylight, while in mid-February this increased to nine hours per day. The population of Kiruna extended its hospitality to the SOLVE personnel. On January 22, 2000, the town hosted a dinner for the participants and media attending an open house at the Arena Arctica hangar. At the end of the SOLVE deployment, the airborne science team held an open house for the townspeople at the facility.

Project Description: NASA is using a DC-8 aircraft as a flying science laboratory. The platform aircraft, based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., collects data for many experiments in support of scientific projects serving the world scientific community. Included in this community are NASA, federal, state, academic and foreign investigators. Data gathered by the DC-8 at flight altitude and by remote sensing have been used for scientific studies in archeology, ecology, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science and biology.

Photo Date: January 2000 NASA Photo by: Jim Ross Photo Number: EC00-0037-008 UID: SPD-DRYDEN-EC00-0037 -008 Original url: www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/DC-8/HTML/EC00-0037-008.html

SOURCE: nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~8~8~62711~166567