Some pictures from the AAOE mission

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The AAOE mission was staged out of Punta Arenas, Chile, in 1987. Punta Areas is a city at the southernmost tip of South America; as the southernmost city with an airport out of which the ER-2 could fly, it was a natural choice for the mission to determine the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole. This is the city's downtown area.

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This is a view of the mountains in the countryside just outside of Punta Arenas. The winds in the area are quite strong and presented operational difficulties for the ER-2 aircraft.

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This is a view of the inside of the hangar used during the mission. The AAOE mission participants were the guests of the Chilean military, and the hangar was on one of their bases. The white structure with blue doors contained offices and labs for the experimental teams. To the left you can see the ER-2 nose pod.

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This is a view of the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft inside the hangar at Punta Arenas. The wing pod which contains the ClO instrument can be seen near the center of the photo; its intake probe has a red tag hanging from it (indicating that the protective covering to which it is attached must be removed before flight.) The mission scientist, Dr. Adrian Tuck, is at the far left, walking towards the right.

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This is a view of the NASA DC-8 on the taxiway at the base in Punta Arenas. Unlike the ER-2, which can carry only the pilot, the DC-8 has room for the experimenters to fly and operate their instruments. While it flies at much lower altitudes than the ER-2, the DC-8 has a much longer range, and it has instruments to look into the ozone layer and do remote sensing from below.

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This is a view of the inside of the NASA DC-8 flying laboratory. You can see the computer terminals used to control the instruments. On the left side of the plane, headsets are hanging on the wall; these are worn by the experimenters to receive instructions and status from the flight crew and their colleagues on board.

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Photographs courtesy of Dr. Mark Schoeberl.