Image Credit:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J.
Beck
A new NASA field campaign will begin flights over the Arctic this summer to
study the effect of sea ice retreat on Arctic climate. The Arctic Radiation
IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE) will conduct research flights Aug. 28
through Oct. 1, covering the peak of summer sea ice melt.
ARISE is NASA's first Arctic airborne campaign designed to take simultaneous
measurements of ice, clouds and the levels of incoming and outgoing radiation,
the balance of which determines the degree of climate warming. The campaign team
will fly aboard NASA’s C-130 aircraft from Thule Air Base in northern Greenland
the first week and from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, through
the remainder of the campaign.
In recent years the Arctic has experienced increased summer sea ice loss.
Scientists expect the exposure of more open water to sunlight could enhance
warming in the region and cause the release of more moisture to the atmosphere.
Additional moisture could affect cloud formation and the exchange of heat from
Earth’s surface to space. Researchers are grappling with how these changes in
the Arctic affect global climate.
NASA’s C-130 aircraft will carry scientists over
the Arctic starting this month from northern Greenland and Fairbanks,
Alaska.
Image Credit:
NASA
"A wild card in what's happening in the Arctic is clouds and how changes in
clouds, due to changing sea-ice conditions, enhance or offset warming," said
Bill Smith, ARISE principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia.
ARISE was planned over the last year to take advantage of NASA’s existing
capabilities for gathering data about ongoing changes in the Arctic. Satellites
provided some information about clouds and the energy balance in the Arctic, but
the multiple instruments flown during ARISE should provide further insight.
"The clouds and surface conditions over the Arctic as we observe them from
satellites are very complex," Smith said. "We need more information to
understand how to better interpret the satellite measurements, and an aircraft
can help with that."
The array of instruments on ARISE should help scientists better observe how
sea ice loss is affecting Arctic cloud formation and therefore the balance of
incoming and outgoing radiation. Low-level clouds typically reflect more
sunlight and offset warming, while higher clouds are typically less reflective
and act to trap more heat in the atmosphere.
“It’s a complex business, but it depends on a lot of things we can, in fact,
measure,” said Hal Maring, program manager for radiation sciences in the Earth
Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
ARISE researchers will fly survey missions that target different cloud types
and surface conditions, such as open water, land ice and sea ice. The missions
will be timed to fly under the orbit paths of key satellite instruments, such as
the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) instruments on
multiple NASA satellites. Each morning, mission planners will look at satellite
timings and weather forecasts to design flight plans that meet the most
objectives of the campaign.
The NASA C-130, based at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, will carry
instruments that measure solar (incoming) and infrared (outgoing) radiation, ice
surface elevation and cloud properties such as cloud particle size. This will be
the first time that many of these instruments, including the mission's laser
altimeter, have flown together.
The ARISE campaign is a joint effort of the Radiation Sciences, Cryospheric
Sciences and Airborne Sciences programs of the Earth Science Division in NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of
satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA
develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems
with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our
planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global
community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world
that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
To learn more about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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