POLARCAT - And the end of the International Polar Year

The first session proposal for the 2010 Oslo Science Conference is already in. Andreas Stohl from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) came out as the winner of the informal race, as he proposed an integrating session on "Short-lived pollutants in the polar regions: Sources, transport, impacts", together with Kathy Law, a colleague in France. Andreas is involved in the IPY project POLARCAT. [more information]

Summer Campaigns Underway

The French and German teams are underway in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and the Russian flights begin on the 5th of July. For more information about these campaigns, visit the CAMPAIGNS section..

Forecasts from the ARCTAS Campaign in Cold Lake, Alberta

Updates on DC8 Flight Plans

Flight Plans for the DLR FALCON in Greenland

Track the ARCTAS campaigns in real-time, use NASA's Real-Time Mission Monitor to follow the activity. Below is a photo of the DC8 during an intercomparison with another aircraft.

		The Spring campaigns are completed. See the spring campaign summary slideshow.	Subscribe!

About the Program

POLARCAT will execute a series of aircraft experiments at different times of the year in order to follow pollution plumes of different origin as they are transported into the Arctic and observe the chemistry, aerosol processes, and radiation effects of these plumes. It will also observe the atmospheric composition in relatively cleaner regions outside major plumes. The experiments will also take advantage of the long residence times of pollutants in the stably stratified Arctic atmosphere to study ageing processes by targeting air masses that have spent considerable time in the Arctic . The Arctic will, thus, also serve as a natural laboratory for investigating processes that cannot be studied elsewhere in such isolation.

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This is the POLARCAT portal. This site will be constantly changing throughout the IPY to address the activities associated with the individual campaign. Please bookmark this page and check back frequently for updates.

Contact: jfb at nilu.no if there are questions/comments/concerns.