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ARCPAC
As a part of the International Polar Year, NOAA scientists and their U.S. and international colleagues are conducting the Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate (ARCPAC) field study. ARCPAC is an airborne research activity to investigate the climate-changing characteristics of pollution in the Arctic. The ARCPAC work is a part of the international POLARCAT (Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport) research activity. During the spring of 2008, the NOAA WP-3D Orion carried out a series of flights from Fairbanks, Alaska. The aircraft was outfitted with 26 instruments to transform it into a “flying chemical laboratory” that could measure physical and chemical properties of aerosol fine particles comprising Arctic Haze, cloud properties, and radiation, along with ozone, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and other trace gases that affect climate in the Arctic. For more information see http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/projects/arcpac/ or Brock, C.A. et al, Characteristics, sources, and transport of aerosols measured in spring 2008 during the aerosol, radiation, and cloud processes affecting Arctic climate (ARCPAC) project, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 2423-2453, doi:10.5194/acp-11-2423-2011, 2011.