Small Company Vital to World’s Ozone Vigil : Atmosphere: Biospherical Instruments, with 22 San Diego-based employees, monitors ultraviolet rays.
Talk about a global village: Biospherical Instruments, a tiny, San Diego-based company, is the sole source of ultraviolet radiation measurements that the world’s scientific community uses to determine how quickly the Earth’s ozone layer is deteriorating.
Closely held Biospherical Instruments, with 22 San Diego-based employees, holds an exclusive National Science Foundation contract to maintain half a dozen ultraviolet radiation sensors in far-flung locations around the world.
The readings are important because of the direct correlation between rising UV levels and ozone deterioration: As ozone is depleted, more of the potentially deadly UV rays make their way to the Earth’s surface. Scientists have linked ozone destruction to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, the man-made chemicals that destroy ozone in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
On Oct. 20, researchers at UC Irvine, using data generated by Biospherical Instruments’ monitoring stations in Antarctica and Argentina, reported that the South Pole’s seasonal ozone hole covered a record area during September, stretching more than 9 million square miles.
“Researchers in Southern Argentina also are using data to provide daily (health) reports to the local population about the extent of UV caused by ozone depletion,” said Charles R Booth, Biospherical Instruments’ president.
Scientists would be ill-equipped to monitor ozone depletion without the accurate UV readings that Biospherical Instruments has provided since 1988 because there is no other chain of monitors to gather reliable UV data, said Dennis Peacock, a spokesman for the science foundation. The company’s monitoring stations around the world include several at the South Pole, one in Southern Argentina and one in Barrow, Alaska. A new station at the company’s headquarters near Morena Boulevard apparently is the first ultraviolet radiation monitoring station in the continental United States.
Booth, who attended UC San Diego, founded the company in 1977 as a natural outgrowth of his long-time interest in “providing the tools that researchers can use to do science.” Although the company does not release profit figures, 1992 revenue will rise by about 30% to an estimated $1.6 million, Booth said.
Biospherical Instruments’s NSF contract mandates that the privately held company restrict its work to data gathering. “We don’t compete with the scientists who are funded to study ozone depletion,” Booth said. “We provide uniform data that (scientists) can use in their own research.”
“What Biospherical Instruments gives us is standardization and uniformity,” Peacock said. “Whoever wants the data (internationally), can get it.”
The stations utilize “spectroradiometers,” devices that make high-resolution measurements of ultraviolet radiation. The far-flung monitoring system automatically collects and stores data, which is beamed to San Diego via modems that link up with orbiting satellites.
Biospherical Instruments has developed several other remote monitoring systems that have commercial applications.
In 1990, the company installed a remote device to monitor the growth of plankton that, left untreated, give water in municipal reservoirs an unwanted taste and smell. Based on the success of that first monitor, two more devices have been installed at reservoirs that serve the Los Angeles area.
Early detection is important because chlorine kills plankton if it is applied early in the growth cycle. Typically, however, chlorine treatment is delayed because crews must draw water from the reservoir for testing, a time-consuming, costly process.
Physical sampling can only be conducted if “crews get in a rowboat and go out to grab” a sample for testing, Booth said. In contrast, data gathered by the remote device is relayed immediately by way of a cellular telephone system, giving water officials “direct access to water quality every 15 minutes if they so desire,” Booth said.
Biospherical Instrument’s reservoir monitor uses optical and chemical devices to monitor growth of biological organisms in reservoirs. The changes occur at levels that are far too low to be detected by the human eye.
Booth envisions a wide variety of applications for the optical devices, including installation near sewage outfall pipes and in areas where oil spills are likely to occur. As is the case with its water reservoir and South Pole stations, the proposed monitors would be unattended devices capable of sending data by satellite.
The company also manufactures a variety of unique testing devices for researchers around the world. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other noted research organizations regularly turn to Biospherical Instruments for research devices. The company’s local employees also repair research instruments and operate devices for clients.
Booth also takes time out each year to travel on research expeditions. Although scientific research is the main goal, Booth uses the annual excursions to test new devices.
In late November, he will join a Cousteau Society research expedition on the Mekong River as it flows through Vietnam. The expedition “will give us an idea of ultraviolet radiation’s penetration into river systems and coastal waters in equatorial environments,” Booth said.
