The Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT) project is a major research activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) program that directly addresses the tropospheric chemistry and transport of ozone, fine particles and other chemically active greenhouse-compounds. This activity is aimed at understanding the long-range transport of ozone and aerosols and the impact that this intercontinental transport has on regional climate and air-quality.

About 150 Scientists from 33 government, university, and industry laboratories participated in the ITCT 2002 project from April - May of 2002.

Field Sites and Related Studies
The ITCT 2002 project consisted of aircraft research flights aboard the NOAA WP-3D, extensive ground-based measurements at Trinidad Head, California, and collaborated efforts with two other research projects, PHOBEA and PEACE.

• Ground Based Measurements, Trinidad Head, CA
• NOAA WP-3D Measurements, Monterey, CA
• NOAA Environmental Technology Lab (ETL) Profiler
• Photochemical Ozone Budget of the Eastern North Pacific Atmosphere II (PHOBEA-2) (University of Washington)
• Pacific Exploration of Asian Continental Emission (PEACE-B) (Japan)

Modeling and Forecasts
As well as in situ measurements, a major component of the ITCT 2002 project was the forecasting and modeling of long range transport. Meteorological and satellite data feeds (GOES-West and GMS5 geostationary infrared and water vapor) and a variety of 3D chemical transport models from regional to hemisphere to global scale were run to facilitate the flight planning. Forecasting activities included two three-dimensional tracer models used to forecast long-range transport and transformation of ozone and aerosols, their precursors and other trace chemicals, and particle dispersion models incorporating forecast wind fields which transport and disperse a passive tracer available daily.

• NOAA Aeronomy Lab Satellite and Meteorological Product Archive (NOAA Aeronomy Lab)
• IAPS and GEOS-CHEM ITCT 2k2 Automatic Processing System (Harvard)
• CFORS-STEM Chemical weather FORecast System (University of Iowa)
• Tracer and trajectory forecasts and meteorological fields (Technical University of Munich)
• MM5-SMOG (UCLA)
• MOZART Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers (NCAR)
• MATCH-MPIC Model of Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry (Max Planck Institue for Chemistry)

NOAA's Atmospheric Research Campaign
Combining Climate Change and Air Quality Research

NOAA Research Earth System Research Laboratory Chemical Sciences Division
| Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Terms of Reference | |