An international team of researchers, led by the French space agency CNES (National Space Study Center), launched about 18 long-duration balloons near McMurdo Station during the austral spring to study atmospheric properties and stratospheric ozone. These super-pressure balloons, capable of maintaining a level altitude, carried a host of different instruments for measuring everything from basic atmospheric properties like temperature and humidity, including their profiles to the ice surface, to the processes involved in ozone depletion over Antarctica. The balloons reached 19,000 m (62,000 ft) about 75 minutes following launch.Terry Deshler's team, University of Wyoming, have instruments on the balloons measuring polar stratospheric cloud particles (http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~deshler/research/06mm_NSF.htm). The University of Wyoming has been involved in ozone depletion studies since 1986. Scientists at the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., developed special instruments for the atmospheric studies (http://data.eol.ucar.edu/codiac/projs?CONCORDIASI). To learn more about this project, visit the project blog site: www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/VORCORE/Djournal2/Journal.htm. Also, read about their work in the USAP's online news publication The Antarctic Sun: http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2196.