2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Figure 4
DC-8 Arrival in Thule, Greenland, April 4,
2008. The DC-8 remained in Thule overnight
and returned to Fairbanks the following day.
2. Boreal forest fires and their implications for
atmospheric composition and climate.
3. Aerosol radiative forcing from arctic
haze, boreal fires, surface deposited black
carbon, and other perturbations.
4. Chemical processes with focus on ozone,
aerosols, mercury, and halogens.
The ARCTAS experiment centered on three
NASA aircraft, the DC-8, P-3B and B-200. The
DC-8 flew 184 total flight hours in 22 sorties
with a payload of 21 scientific instruments
examining chemistry and aerosols. The P-
3B logged 178 flight hours with 21sorties
consisting of a payload of nine instruments
examining radiation and aerosols. The B-200
flew 176 flight hours over 48 sorties with the
High Spectral Resolution Lidar (the primary
validation instrument for CALIPSO) and the
Research Scanning Polarimeter (the airborne
simulator for the GLORY satellite instrument).
These aircraft, along with ground sites and
support staff, involved over 300 scientists and
associates across eight NASA installations,
12 Universities, three government labs, and
numerous support organizations. The extent
of satellite, aircraft and ground coordination
with observations, and use of real-time
information transfer between and among the
aircraft and ground to achieve the science
and validation goals during ARCTAS was
unprecedented.
The Project Scientists for the ARCTAS
mission were Dr. Daniel Jacob of Harvard
University and Dr. Hanwant Singh of NASA
Ames. The Platform Scientist for the DC-8
was Dr. Jack Dibb of the University of New
Hampshire. The Platform Scientist for the
P-3 was Dr. Phil Russell of NASA Ames. For
the B-200, the Platform Scientists were Dr.
Chris Hostetler and Dr. Richard Ferrare of
NASA Langley. The Chief Meteorologist was
Dr. Henry Fuelberg of Florida State University.
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