| Summary: | A C-130 aircraft, owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research,rests on the tarmac at sunrise at the Churchill, Manitoba, Canada airport during the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) experiment (February 2000). High winds and blowing snow envelop the plane as sunset nears. Above the tail of the plane is a sun dog (parhelion), a bright patch formed to the side of the sun as sunlight passes through a cloud and is reflected off ice crystals. The goal of TOPSE was to investigate the chemical and dynamic evolution of tropospheric chemical composition over mid- to high-latitude continental North America during the winter/spring transition, with particular emphasis on the springtime ozone maximum in the troposphere.
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