Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX) will perform a series of measurement campaigns using the long-range NASA Global Hawk (GH) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to investigate:

• The impact of stratospheric water vapor on Earth's energy budget and climate.
• Future changes in stratospheric humidity and ozone concentration as a response to climate change.
• To better understand the physical processes and chemical composition of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) which is the region of the atmosphere that controls the composition of the stratosphere.

Project Schedule

Jan-Feb 2013: Dryden Flight Research Center, California
Jan-Feb 2014: Guam
Jun-Jul 2014: Australia

ATTREX is focused on inspiring, engaging and educating the younger generations. The overarching goal of this Education and Public Outreach program is to exploit NASA’s unique position to engage and motivate young people to follow STEM careers by providing them with first hand experiences and exposure to current NASA missions, aircraft, sciences, and most importantly, the people making it happen.