POLARCAT: Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport

Overview

NOAA ICEALOTInternational Chemistry Ex-periment in the Arctic LOwer Troposphere

NOAA conducted a research cruise in the Norwegina, Greenland, and North At-lantic regions of the Arctic during March and April of 2008. Scientific issues addressed in-clude springtime sources and transport of pollutants to the Arctic, evolution of aerosols and gases into and within the Arctic, and cli-mate impacts of haze and ozone in the Arctic. Planned measurements include a full comple-ment of relevant gas phase species as well as aerosol physical, chemical, and optical prop-erties.

Tropospheric Composition and Chemistry

The objective is to investigate the compo-sition and chemistry of the entire Arctic troposphere in two seasons (spring and summer) with the goal of understanding the reactive nitrogen, reactive hydrogen, reactive halogen, and ozone cycles. An in-tegrated approach that links surface, free tropospheric, and satellite observations with models of chemistry and climate is envisioned.

As a core International Polar Year project POLARCAT will address numerous scientific question relying on the extensive multidisciplinary and international resources provided by this unique opportunity.

This is a listing of a few of the cam-paigns. Full listing at: www.polarcat.no

Aerosol Radiative Effects• Improved understanding of Arctic Haze• Radiative Effects in pavvolluted air masses• characterize albedo effects of black carbon

Transport Processes• Quantify transport and residence times of pollution• Measure Polar dome gradients and mixing• Identify pollutant source regions and pathways• Measure vertical stratification of pollution

Boreal Forest Fires• Quantify impact of emissions on Arctic troposphere• Identify pathways for boreal and biomass fires• Characterize pyroCBs, examine ozone related processes

Tools

• Coordinated Mobile Platform Measurements- Aircraft - Ships- Balloons - Train

• Station Based Measurements- Summit - Zeppelin- Barrow - Alert & Others

• Transport & Chemical Modeling- e.g FLEXPART - GEOS-CHEM

• Satellite Measurements / Observations

NASA ARCTASArctic Research of the Composition of the Tro-posphere from Aircraft and Satellites Spring - Summer 2008.

Example Campaigns

ASTAR

ICEALOT

ARCTASARCPAC

Contact: Trish QuinnNOAA PMELSeattle, WA, USA

Contact: James H. Crawford NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA , USA

CNRS / DLR GRACE

The Arctic system is particularly sensitive to climate variability and filled with uncertainty. Furthermore complex feedback mechanisms - most being simply unknown - seem to be amplified in this environment. During the International Polar Year (IPY) a number of international partnerships were formed to establish the Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport (POLARCAT). The POLARCAT projects cooperated with support from several national funding agencies to undertake the most comprehensive assessment of air pollution impacts on the Arctic to date. In spring and summer of 2008 more than 20 institutes from ten nations participated in intensive aircraft, ship, and station-based campaigns with accompanying efforts from the satellite and modeling communities to provide near real time products for mission planning and analysis. These campaigns provided an assessment of the role that tropospheric chemistry, aerosols, and transport play in the Arctic. The spring campaigns focused on anthropogenic pollution, while the summer campaigns targeted biomass burning. During the spring of 2008, over 80 flights were flown by five different aircraft as part of the ARCTAS, ISDAC, ARCPAC, and French POLARCAT campaigns, the ICEALOT campaign commissioned the R/V Knorr to travel over 12,000 km, and numerous specialty satellite and modelling products were developed with near real time distribution.

Burkhart, J F; Bates, T ; Brock, CA ; Clerbaux, C ; Crawford, J H; Dibb, J E; Law, K ; Quinn, P; Schlager, H; Singh, H B; Stohl, A1) Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway2) NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, USA3) NOAA Environmental Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA4) Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Service d'Aéronomie, Université Pierre et Marie Curie

5) NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA6) Institute for Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, USA7) Service d' Aéronomie, CNRS, IPSL/Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France8) Institute of Atmospheric Physics (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany9 )NASA Ames Research Center, California, USA

The ARCTAS campaigns were conducted out of Cold Lake Alberta during June 2008 and from Fairbanks, Alaska during the spring. The DC-8, P3-B, and B-200 were the primary aircraft platforms used. Numerous model and satellite products were also provided for the campaigns and post campaign analysis

A few objectives of POLARCAT-GRACE are:

- to determine the annual variation of the distribution of trace gases and aerosols in the Arctic (using POLSTAR, POLARCAT-ASTAR and POLARCAT-GRACE measurements);- to study the pathways and dispersion of boreal forest fire emissions at high latitudes;- to study the role of mixing during long-range transport using ambient and artificial tracer

Contact: http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/polarcat/index.html

Greenland Atmospheric Chemistry ExperimentJuly 01 - July 17, 2008

ACP - Special IssuePOLARCAT (Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport)Editor(s): A. Stohl, K. Law, J. W. Bottenheim, and P. Monks

Decadal trends in aerosol chemical composition at Barrow, Alaska: 1976–2008P. K. Quinn, T. S. Bates, K. Schulz, and G. E. ShawAtmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 8883-8888, 2009

Wildfire smoke in the Siberian Arctic in summer: source characterization and plume evolution from airborne measurementsJ.-D. Paris, A. Stohl, P. Nédélec, M. Yu. Arshinov, M. V. Panchenko, V. P. Shmargunov, K. S. Law, B. D. Belan, and P. CiaisAtmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 9315-9327, 2009

Source identification of short-lived air pollutants in the Arctic using statistical analysis of measurement data and particle dispersion model outputD. Hirdman, H. Sodemann, S. Eckhardt, J. F. Burkhart, A. Jefferson, T. Mefford, P. K. Quinn, S. Sharma, J. Ström, and A. StohlAtmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 669-693, 2010

A meteorological overview of the ARCTAS 2008 missionH. E. Fuelberg, D. L. Harrigan, and W. SessionsAtmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 817-842, 2010

Source attribution and interannual variability of Arctic pollution in spring constrained by aircraft (ARCTAS, ARCPAC) and satellite (AIRS) observations of carbon monoxideJ. A. Fisher, D. J. Jacob, M. T. Purdy, M. Kopacz, P. Le Sager, C. Carouge, C. D. Holmes, R. M. Yantosca, R. L. Batchelor, K. Strong, G. S. Diskin, H. E. Fuelberg, J. S. Holloway, E. J. Hyer, W. W. McMillan, J. Warner, D. G. Streets, Q. Zhang, Y. Wang, and S. WuAtmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 977-996, 2010Abstract Final Revised Paper (PDF, 7477 KB) Discussion Paper (ACPD)

Overall Project Objectives

AcknowledgementsFunding for the POLARCAT Campaigns was provided individually by participating countries and the various IPY activities. In particular, NASA, NOAA, and the NSF funded many aspects, while coordination of the project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

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