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As a Senior Research Scientist and head of Space Experiments Section in the Air Quality Directorate, Tom McElroy provides leadership in remote sounding of the atmosphere for the study of ozone depletion and ozone chemistry.
Dr. McElroy’s work in atmospheric spectroscopy includes co-inventing the Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer (more than 130 Canadian-made Brewers now monitor ozone in 30 countries). He also managed the development of the Sunphotometer that was used on the Space Shuttle Mission STS-41G by astronaut Marc Garneau and created the Sunphotospectrometer that flew with astronaut Steve MacLean in 1992. A new instrument developed from the Sunphotospectrometer now studies stratospheric chemistry during NASA’s ER-2 high-altitude flights. Derived from the notorious U-2 Cold War spy plane, the ER-2 has a stratospheric chemistry program that provided the first direct experimental evidence that CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) were responsible for the Antarctic Ozone Hole. Dr. McElroy was also responsible for the 1998 flight of the MANTRA (Middle Atmosphere Nitrogen Trend Assessment) research balloon that made headlines when it escaped Canada and flew across the North Atlantic to land safely in Finland.
Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at York University, Tom McElroy has received the World Meteorological Organization’s Norbert Gerbier-Mumm international research award for co-authoring a 1993 paper featured in the Science journal. His Brewer Spectrophotometer development and technology transfer project received the 1986 Canada Award for Excellence by the Ministry of Regional Industrial Expansion.
Dr. McElroy sits on influential international committees such as the WMO/NASA Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change’s column ozone committee, WMO’s total ozone Science Advisory Group’s Brewer Steering Committee, the International Ozone Commission and science advisory groups for the European Space Agency's MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) and Gome (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) satellite instruments. He also contributes to his local community through his involvements on the Broadview Foundation and the Festive Earth Society, a Toronto environmental group.
The Green LaneTM,
Environment Canada's World Wide Web Site.