The Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission: design, execution, and first results ... : The ARCTAS aircraft mission: design and execution ...

• Main Authors: Jacob, D. J., Crawford, J. H., Maring, H., Clarke, A. D., Dibb, J. E., Emmons, L. K., Ferrare, R. A., Hostetler, C. A., Russell, P. B., Singh, H. B., Thompson, Anne M., Shaw, G. E., McCauley, E., Pederson, J. R., Fisher, J. A.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: EGU 2010
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.13016/m2zp6o-vagw; https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/34841

The NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission was conducted in two 3-week deployments based in Alaska (April 2008) and western Canada (June–July 2008). Its goal was to better understand the factors driving current changes in Arctic atmospheric composition and climate, including (1) influx of mid-latitude pollution, (2) boreal forest fires, (3) aerosol radiative forcing, and (4) chemical processes. The June–July deployment was preceded by one week of flights over California (ARCTAS-CARB) focused on (1) improving state emission inventories for greenhouse gases and aerosols, (2) providing observations to test and improve models of ozone and aerosol pollution. ARCTAS involved three aircraft: a DC-8 with a detailed chemical payload, a P-3 with an extensive aerosol and radiometric payload, and a B-200 with aerosol remote sensing instrumentation. The aircraft data augmented satellite observations of Arctic atmospheric composition, in particular from the ...