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NASA explores stratosphere to learn effects of the warming planet Earth

NASA Chases Climate Change Clues Into The Stratosphere  NASA, 9 Jan
13, WASHINGTON — Starting this month, NASA will send a remotely
piloted research aircraft as high as 65,000 feet over the tropical
Pacific Ocean to probe unexplored regions of the upper atmosphere for
answers to how a warming climate is changing Earth.

The first flights of the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment
(ATTREX), a multi-year airborne science campaign with a heavily
instrumented Global Hawk aircraft, will take off from and be operated
by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in
California. The Global Hawk is able to make 30-hour flights.

Water vapor and ozone in the stratosphere can have a large impact on
Earth’s climate. The processes that drive the rise and fall of these
compounds, especially water vapor, are not well understood. This
limits scientists’ ability to predict how these changes will influence
global climate in the future. ATTREX will study moisture and chemical
composition in the upper regions of the troposphere, the lowest layer
of Earth’s atmosphere. The tropopause layer between the troposphere
and stratosphere, 8 miles to 11 miles above Earth’s surface, is the
point where water vapor, ozone and other gases enter the stratosphere.

Studies have shown even small changes in stratospheric humidity may
have significant climate impacts. Predictions of stratospheric
humidity changes are uncertain because of gaps in the understanding of
the physical processes occurring in the tropical tropopause layer.
ATTREX will use the Global Hawk to carry instruments to sample this
layer near the equator off the coast of Central America.
“The ATTREX payload will provide unprecedented measurements of the
tropical tropopause,” said Eric Jensen, ATTREX principal investigator
at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “This is our
first opportunity to sample the tropopause region during winter in the
northern hemisphere when it is coldest and extremely dry air enters
the stratosphere.” ……
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/jan/HQ_13-013_Global_Hawk_ATTREX.html

January 10, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change, Reference