Linde Gases, a division of the Linde Group, has announced an agreement to supply cryogenic gases - liquid helium and nitrogen - and other specialty gases, including helium, carbon monoxide and medical grade oxygen, to an international scientific consortium coordinated by the Jülich Research Center, Germany. The gases will be used in an important atmospheric research project to assess the effects of climate change on the ozone layer. The gases will be supplied by Linde's Swedish subsidiary, AGA.

The project, named Reconcile, will be carried out as a series of 10 flight missions until the end of March from the Arena Arctica base, near Kiruna in northern Sweden. The flights will be undertaken in a Russian supplied M55 ex-reconnaissance plane, the Geophysica, which is capable of reaching altitudes exceeding 20 kilometers. Reconsile and the subsequent analysis of its research data is being carried out by a consortium of seventeen partners from nine countries, including the Jülich and Karlsruhe Research Centers in Germany, the University of Cambridge in the UK, NASA in the U.S., the Norwegian Institute for Air Research and the German Aerospace Center.

Global climate change, which is induced to a large extent by anthropogenic - or human-derived - greenhouse gas emissions, is believed to affect stratospheric chemistry and dynamics, resulting in ozone loss. In turn, changes to the ozone layer can affect change in climate, resulting in a potential spiral of atmospheric damage. The research project will provide insight into how these ozone-climate feedback loops work together and make long-term predictions about ozone and climate change possible.

The Geophysica will carry sophisticated scientific instruments, including a helium-cooled telescope and spectrometry system jointly operated by Jülich Research Center and University of Wuppertal, Germany in order to probe chemical composition and particle properties by measuring infrared emissions. By providing insight into how ozone-climate-feedback-loops work together, long term predictions about ozone and climate change can be generated.