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The International Space Station was orbiting on a northeast track 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean when this photograph captured the first rays of an orbital sunrise illuminating Earth's atmosphere.
Okorn installing an INSTEP monitor on a rooftop at NASA Ames

Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics Missions & Projects at Ames

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Charles Gatebe

Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ)

ASIA-AQ focused on improving understanding of the factors controlling local air quality across Asia through multi-perspective observations and modeling.

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Maps of the geographical regions sampled in February-March 2024 during ASIA-AQ. Colored areas are those mapped by the GIll and the white lines represent one flight from the DC8.

Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects (SABRE)

SABRE is an extended airborne science measurement program utilizing the NASA WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft to study the transport, chemistry, microphysics and radiative properties of aerosols in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). MMS will be used to provide critical/high precision measurements of state parameters (pressure, temperature, turbulence index, and the 3-dimensional wind vector).

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Photo of Reentry into Earth’s stratosphere leaves particles in the atmosphere, such as silver, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, chromium, nickel, zinc and lithium.
Photo of Reentry into Earth’s stratosphere leaves particles in the atmosphere, such as silver, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, chromium, nickel, zinc and lithium.
Chelsea Thompson/NOAA

Airborne asSessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance Product Performance for PACE (AirSHARP3)

NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) logo

AirSHARP project goal is to provide high fidelity spatial coverage and spectral data for ocean color products for validation of the new NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite sensors measuring ocean and atmospheric optical properties. NASA Ames Research Center’s 4STAR (Spectrometers for Sky Scanning and Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research) instrument sunphotometer will be used to study   California’s wildfires and urban/agricultural influence at the air-sea interface.

Salt Lake City-Summer Ozone Study (SLC-SOS)

The goal of the NSF-sponsored campaign is to investigate ozone production and pollutant evolution in thermally driven lake breeze flows over and surrounding Salt Lake City. High Ozone mixing ratios are a serious summertime health and economic concern for Utah’s Wasatch Front residents. NASA Ames is deploying the ROZE instrument to this campaign in 2024 and 2025.

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Photo of Schematic of a tiered observing system composed of surface, airborne and satellite assets that is used to evaluate and monitor U.S. oil and gas and urban emissions of methane and air pollutants
The Utah Summer Ozone Study (USOS), where SLC-SOS is, will use many of the same mobile platforms in late July and August, augmented with measurements from several fixed ground sites. The goal of the project is to measure the type and distribution of pollutants that cause ozone development, and the atmospheric boundary layer that keeps pollutants trapped near the Earth’s surface. The Salt Lake metro region is also in non-attainment of the EPA ozone standard.
NOAA