The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) Mission: Imaging the Chemistry of the Global Atmosphere

Autor(en)

Chelsea R. Thompson, Steven C. Wofsy, Michael J. Prather, Paul A. Newman, Thomas F. Hanisco, Thomas B. Ryerson, David W. Fahey, Eric C. Apel, Charles A. Brock, William H. Brune, Karl Froyd, Joseph M. Katich, Julie M. Nicely, Jeff Peischl, Eric Ray, Patrick R. Veres, Siyuan Wang, Hannah M. Allen, Elizabeth Asher, Huisheng Bian, Donald Blake, Ilann Bourgeois, John Budney, T. Paul Bui, Amy Butler, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Cecilia Chang, Mian Chin, Róisín Commane, Gus Correa, John D. Crounse, Bruce Daube, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua P. Digangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Maximilian Dollner, James W. Elkins, Arlene M. Fiore, Clare M. Flynn, Hao Guo, Samuel R. Hall, Reem A. Hannun, Alan Hills, Eric J. Hintsa, Alma Hodzic, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, L. Greg Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Ralph F. Keeling, Michelle J. Kim, Agnieszka Kupc, Forrest Lacey, Leslie R. Lait, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Junhua Liu, Kathryn McKain, Simone Meinardi, David O. Miller, Stephen A. Montzka, Fred L. Moore, Eric J. Morgan, Daniel M. Murphy, Lee T. Murray, Benjamin A. Nault, J. Andrew Neuman, Louis Nguyen, Yenny Gonzalez, Andrew Rollins, Karen Rosenlof, Maryann Sargent, Gregory Schill, Joshua P. Schwarz, Jason M. St. Clair, Stephen D. Steenrod, Britton B. Stephens, Susan E. Strahan, Sarah A. Strode, Colm Sweeney, Alexander B. Thames, Kirk Ullmann, Nicholas Wagner, Rodney Weber, Bernadett Weinzierl, Paul O. Wennberg, Christina J. Williamson, Glenn M. Wolfe, Linghan Zeng

Abstrakt

This article provides an overview of the NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission and a summary of selected scientific findings to date. ATom was an airborne measurements and modeling campaign aimed at characterizing the composition and chemistry of the troposphere over the most remote regions of the Pacific, Southern, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, and examining the impact of anthropogenic and natural emissions on a global scale. These remote regions dominate global chemical reactivity and are exceptionally important for global air quality and climate. ATom data provide the in situ measurements needed to understand the range of chemical species and their reactions, and to test satellite remote sensing observations and global models over large regions of the remote atmosphere. Lack of data in these regions, particularly over the oceans, has limited our understanding of how atmospheric composition is changing in response to shifting anthropogenic emissions and physical climate change. ATom was designed as a global-scale tomographic sampling mission with extensive geographic and seasonal coverage, tropospheric vertical profiling, and detailed speciation of reactive compounds and pollution tracers. ATom flew the NASA DC-8 research aircraft over four seasons to collect a comprehensive suite of measurements of gases, aerosols, and radical species from the remote troposphere and lower stratosphere on four global circuits from 2016 to 2018. Flights maintained near-continuous vertical profiling of 0.15 – 13 km altitudes on long meridional transects of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins. Analysis and modeling of ATom data have led to the significant early findings highlighted here.

Organisation(en)

Aerosolphysik und Umweltphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, University of Colorado, Boulder, Harvard University, University of California, Irvine, National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland, College Park, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Maryland, Baltimore, NASA Ames Research Center, Columbia University in the City of New York, University of New Hampshire, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, San Diego, Universities Space Research Association, University of Rochester, Unknown External Organisation Unbekannt/undefiniert

Journal

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Band

103

Seiten

E761-E790

Anzahl der Seiten

30

ISSN

0003-0007

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0315.1

Publikationsdatum

03-2022

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103037 Umweltphysik, 103039 Aerosolphysik, 105206 Meteorologie, 105208 Atmosphärenchemie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Atmospheric Science

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 – Maßnahmen zum Klimaschutz

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/0df3d78a-f33f-40e2-9e68-c2e0697634c3