Current Mission: ARCTAS

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The Arctic is a beacon of global change

It is where warming has been strongest over the past century, accelerating over the past decades. It is an atmospheric receptor of pollution from the northern continents, beset by emissions from massive forest fires in boreal Eurasia and North America.

Even small changes to the arctic environment trigger unique regional responses, making the Arctic a particularly vulnerable place, subject to dramatic amplification of environmental change with possibly global consequences.

ARCTAS home site at NASA ESPO

ARCTAS DETAILS

SCIENTIFIC THEMES OF ARCTAS

Long-range transport of pollution to the Arctic including arctic haze, tropospheric ozone, and persistent pollutants such as mercury
Boreal forest fires and their implications for atmospheric composition and climate
Aerosol radiative forcing from arctic haze, boreal fires, surface-deposited black carbon, and other perturbations
Chemical processes with focus on ozone, aerosols, mercury, and halogens

Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS)

The NASA ARCTAS mission will provide retrieval algorithm validation and correlative information uniquely accessible from aircraft platforms, unleashing the potential of NASA space-based observations for Arctic research. These ARCTAS aircraft measurements will enable effective assimilation of the space-based observations into Earth science models.

ARCTAS will take place as two 3 week aircraft deployments, in April and July 2008, and involve the NASA DC-8 as an in situ platform for detailed atmospheric composition.

The spring deployment will target anthropogenic pollution including arctic haze, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and sunrise photochemistry including halogen radicals. The summer deployment will target boreal forest fires, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and summertime photochemistry.

ARCTAS DC-8 FLIGHT REPORTS

Dates	Flight Plans	Flight Reports
03/17/2008		Test Flight #1
03/18/2008		Test Flight #2
04/01/2008		Flight #3
04/04/2008	Flight #4	Flight #4
04/05/2008	Flight #5	Flight #5
04/08/2008	Flight #6	Flight #6
04/09/2008	Flight #7	Flight #7
04/12/2008	Flight #8

PAYLOAD

Question:
How long does it take to load equipment on the DC-8 for a mission?

Answer:
30 seconds. That's it. These guys are good!

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