Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom)
Where: Arctic to Africa
When: 2016 - 2018
Scientists from NOAA and CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder) co-lead a three-year, multi-agency effort to understand the impacts of human-produced air pollution on the environment. The Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) will study tropospheric ozone, methane and black carbon aerosols. These short-lived climate forcers are important examples of pollutants that affect air quality and also contribute to global warming. ATom will provide a single, comprehensive data set with essential scientific information for national and international discussions about how to mitigate these pollutants. Data collected during ATom will show the distribution, sources, and variability of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances all over the globe, providing unique new constraints on Earth system and climate models. The extraordinary data from ATom will be used to validate satellite remote sensing data. This is a NASA-funded project and includes partners from Harvard University, other universities, and industry.
Instrument integration and test flights aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft begin late July 2016 at the mission base of operations, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. Over the next three years, ATom will travel around the world four times, once per season, with continuous ascents and descents to allow vertical profiling between 0.2 and 12 km altitude. The first deployment takes off on July 28 for a 26-day world tour. The DC-8 will fly north to the Arctic before journeying down the Pacific and back up the Atlantic with stops in Anchorage, Alaska; Kona, Hawaii; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Christchurch, New Zealand; Punta Arenas, Chile; Ascension Island, Lajes, Azores; and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, before completing the journey back to California.
Photo: W. von Dauster, NOAA
CSD's Chelsea Thompson works on the instrument developed for the Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom)
NASA ATom in the field blog led by Chelsea Thompson, NOAA / CIRES: Around the World in 26 Days
NASA Goddard YouTube Channel: ATom Mission interview clips - Tom Ryerson, NOAA
ATom Photos:
CSD instrument measuring nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ozone (O3)