Stratosphere around at midlatitudes, and at about at the poles. Temperatures range from an average of near the tropopause to an average of near the mesosphere. Stratospheric temperatures also vary within the stratosphere as the seasons change, reaching particularly low temperatures in the polar night (winter). Winds in the stratosphere can far exceed those in the troposphere, reaching near in the Southern polar vortex. The mechanism describing the formation of the ozone layer was described by British mathematician Sydney Chapman in 1930. Molecular oxygen absorbs high energy sunlight in the UV-C region, at wavelengths shorter than about 240 nm. Radicals produced
Earth Radiation Budget Satellite installed on the International Space Station in 2017. The SAGE II instrument experienced a failure in July 2000. SAGE II was unable to lock on to either sunrise or sunset events. This was believed to be due to excessively noisy azimuth potentiometer readings in selected azimuth regions. An operational work-around was developed which allowed SAGE II to collect approximately 50 percent of the nominal science data. SAGE-II was powered off in August 2005 in preparation for decommissioning. Earth Radiation Budget Satellite The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was a NASA scientific research satellite within NASA's ERBE (Earth Radiation Budget Experiment)