Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment (AVE) Winter 2006

The Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment (CR-AVE) is the third in a series of similar NASA-led science missions to acquire high quality measurements of the tropical atmosphere to validate data from NASAs Aura satellite (launched July 15, 2004). Such experiments allow scientists to directly measure the transport of gases and tiny particles called aerosols in the lower atmosphere (or troposphere) and their exchange with the lower stratosphere. This data is then compared with that from Aura to enable improved modeling of global-scale air quality and climate change predictions.

Utilizing research balloons and the NASA WB-57F high-altitude aircraft, CR-AVE will collect considerable data on the largely under-sampled tropical tropopause layer (TTL). The TTL is the region of the tropical atmosphere that lies between the top of the main cumulus outflow layer (~12 km or 7.5 miles) and the thermal tropopause (~16 km or approx. 10 miles) and plays a crucial role in the "dehydration" of air entering the stratosphere.

The mission will include flights from near the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, to Costa Rica. The WB-57F will be loaded with a suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments to collect information on ozone and ozone-destroying radicals, aerosols, and cloud physical properties.

CR-AVE will also gather data on a variety of atmospheric constituents, including ozone, water vapor and methane in the upper troposphere. These are important "greenhouse gases that affect global temperature. Aerosols, like dust and smoke, work to absorb or reflect radiation and also play a significant role in both global air quality and the regulation of the Earths climate.

Contacts:

Kent Shiffer
Project Manager
NASA Ames Research Center
Kent.C.Shiffer@nasa.gov

Paul Newman
Project Scientist
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD
Paul.A.Newman@nasa.gov

Science Goals:

• Examine the water vapor and ozone budget in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL).
• Study cirrus cloud properties in the TTL.
• Use water isotopes to test transport mechanisms in the TTL.
• Determine how decomposed products of very short-lived halogen compounds travel into the stratosphere.
• Validate ozone and carbon monoxide profiles gathered from Aura's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES).
• Validate Aura's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) from ozone profile measurements, cloud height data, and ultraviolet-visible backscatter.
• Validate Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) measurements of methane, carbon monoxide, water vapor, nitric acid, nitrous oxide, and cloud ice.
• Gather data to better understand cloud-water vapor feedbacks in the global climate.

Partners:

NASA scientists will work in close collaboration with several researchers from other government agencies, private institutions, and universities, including the University of Denver, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin.

When:

January 4 - February 14, 2006

Where:

CR-AVE will deploy the NASA WB-57 research aircraft from Houston, Texas, to flights over and around Costa Rica. This location is conducive to addressing the research objectives while significantly improving the opportunities to sample the tropical atmosphere.

Links:

Mission Site:

http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/ave-costarica2/

For information about Aura:

http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For more information about NASAs WB-57F High Altitude research:

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/

For more information about the Aura Validation Data Center:

http://avdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Overview/index.html