1. During April 2008, as part of the International Polar Year (IPY), NOAA’s Climate Forcing and Air Quality Programs engaged in an airborne field measurement campaign in the Alaskan Arctic. The Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate (ARCPAC) field mission (Fairbanks AK) focused on direct measurements of properties and processes designed to address four major areas of non-greenhouse-gas atmospheric climate forcing:
Direct warming of the lower troposphere by the absorption of solar radiation and IR emission by aerosol particles from anthropogenic and biomass burning sources.
Changes in snow melt due to deposition of soot (light-absorbing carbon) to the surface in springtime.
Increases in IR emissivity of wintertime and springtime clouds in the Arctic due to the effects of anthropogenic aerosol particles on cloud properties.
Direct radiative effects of tropospheric ozone in the Arctic.
The Real-time Air Quality Modeling System (RAQMS) chemical and aerosol forecasts, initialized with satellite measurements (e.g., Aura OMI column ozone and MLS ozone profiles, Terra and Aqua MODIS AOD) where used for daily flight planning during ARCPAC.
Post mission analysis will focus on improving RAQMS biomass burning emission estimates based on comparisons with airborne observations and integration of satellite, ground based, and airborne observations for evaluation of the impacts of long-range transport of anthropogenic pollution and stratosphere-troposphere exchange on the chemical and aerosol composition of the Arctic.
(R. Bradley Pierce, Todd Schaack and Allen Lenzen (SSEC UW-Madison),
Jay Al-Saadi, Murali Natarajan, Chieko Kittaka (NASA/LaRC))