NASA Flights Target How Pollution, Storms and Climate Mix

June 06, 2013

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Jim Scott
University of Colorado, Boulder
303-492-3114
Jim.Scott@colorado.edu


RELEASE: 13-167

NASA FLIGHTS TARGET HOW POLLUTION, STORMS AND CLIMATE MIX

WASHINGTON -- NASA aircraft will take to the skies over the southern
United States this summer to investigate how air pollution and
natural emissions, which are pushed high into the atmosphere by large
storms, affect atmospheric composition and climate.

NASA will conduct its most complex airborne science campaign of the
year from Houston's Ellington Field, which is operated by the
agency's Johnson Space Center, beginning Aug. 7 and continuing
through September. The field campaign draws together coordinated
observations from NASA satellites, aircraft and an array of ground
sites.

More than 250 scientists, engineers, and flight personnel are
participating in the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition,
Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign.
The project is sponsored by the Earth Science Division in the Science
Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Brian Toon of
the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University
of Colorado, Boulder, is SEAC4RS lead scientist.

Aircraft and sensors will probe the atmosphere from top to bottom at
the critical time of year when weather systems are strong enough and
regional air pollution and natural emissions are prolific enough to
pump gases and particles high into the atmosphere. The result is
potentially global consequences for Earth's atmosphere and climate.

"In summertime across the United States, emissions from large seasonal
fires, metropolitan areas, and vegetation are moved upward by
thunderstorms and the North American Monsoon," Toon said. "When these
chemicals get into the stratosphere they can affect the whole Earth.
They also may influence how thunderstorms behave. With SEAC4RS we
hope to better understand how all these things interact."

SEAC4RS will provide new insights into the effects of the gases and
tiny aerosol particles in the atmosphere. The mission is targeting
two major regional sources of summertime emissions: intense smoke
from forest fires in the U.S. West and natural emissions of isoprene,
a carbon compound, from forests in the Southeast.

Forest fire smoke can change the properties of clouds. The particles
in the smoke can reflect and absorb incoming solar energy,
potentially producing a net cooling at the ground and a warming of
the atmosphere. The addition of large amounts of chemicals, such as
isoprene, can alter the chemical balance of the atmosphere. Some of
these chemicals can damage Earth's protective ozone layer.

The mission will use a number of scientific instruments in orbit, in
the air, and on the ground to paint a detailed picture of these
intertwined atmospheric processes. As a fleet of formation-flying
satellites known as NASA's A-Train passes over the region every day,
sensors will detect different features of the scene below. NASA's
ER-2 high-altitude aircraft will fly into the stratosphere to the
edge of space while NASA's DC-8 aircraft will sample the atmosphere
below it. A third aircraft from SPEC Inc., of Boulder, Colo., will
measure cloud properties.
One benefit of this thorough examination of the region's atmosphere
will be more accurate satellite data.

"By using aircraft to collect data from inside the atmosphere, we can
compare those measurements with what our satellites see and improve
the quality of the data from space," said Hal Maring of the Earth
Science Division at NASA Headquarters.

The SEAC4RS campaign is partly supported by the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory. NASA scientists involved in the mission come from NASA's
Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.; Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt., Md.; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif.; and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

NASA's Earth Science Project Office at Ames manages the SEAC4RS
project. The DC-8 and ER-2 research aircraft are managed by NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center and based at Dryden's Aircraft
Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif.

For more information on the mission, visit:

http://espo.nasa.gov/missions/seac4rs


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