Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite accuracy and spatial resolution, and hence to study the structure and dynamics of the region, (ii) To investigate the distribution and variability of water vapour in the middle atmosphere, to determine its role in the atmospheric general circulation, and its sources and sinks in the middle atmosphere, (iii) To measure the global distribution of oxides of nitrogen and hence to investigate their origins and their roles in catalytic cycles which control the amount of ozone in the stratospheric ozone layer. It also made extensive observations of volcanic aerosols and polar stratospheric clouds in the middle atmosphere. The instrument operated from
Ozone it is not present in uniform concentrations across the globe. However, the most widely accepted scientific assessments relating to climate change (e.g. the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report) suggest that the radiative forcing of tropospheric ozone is about 25% that of carbon dioxide. The annual global warming potential of tropospheric ozone is between 918–1022 tons carbon dioxide equivalent/tons tropospheric ozone. This means on a per-molecule basis, ozone in the troposphere has a radiative forcing effect roughly 1,000 times as strong as carbon dioxide. However, tropospheric ozone is a short-lived greenhouse gas, which decays in the atmosphere much