NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA scientists are leading an airborne field experiment to a warm tropical locale to take a close look at a largely unexplored region of the chilly upper atmosphere. This area is critical to the recovery of the ozone layer and predicting future climate change. This very cold region far above the Earth's equator (54,000 feet), a few miles higher than commercial aircraft can fly, is the main pathway where the lower part of the atmosphere, known as the troposphere, flows into the stratosphere.

Image to right: NASA's WB-57F aircraft from Johnson Space Center is flying to heights of up to 60,000 feet (17 kilometers) to capture best-ever glimpses into the chemistry of the tropical upper atmosphere and hard-to-see clouds. Credit: NASA

High-altitude flights by the NASA WB-57F aircraft during the month-long field campaign are being choreographed from Costa Rica with the orbits of Aura, NASA's latest Earth-observing spacecraft. Launched in 2004, Aura helps scientists understand how the composition of the atmosphere affects and responds to Earth's changing climate. The satellite helps to reveal the processes that connect local and global air quality, and also tracks the extent the Earth's protective ozone layer is recovering.

In concert with global observations from Aura, the Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment (CR-AVE) is tackling several puzzles about how ozone-destroying chemicals get into the stratosphere and how high-altitude clouds affect the flow of one of the most powerful greenhouse gases -- water -- into this critical region. NASA satellites provide a wealth of global observations every day that are essential to investigating many scientific questions.

The experiment is sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Mike Kurylo and Hal Maring are NASA Headquarters program managers for CR-AVE. Paul Newman, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Eric Jensen, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., orchestrate the field activities as project scientists. Logistical support is provided by Ames Research Center.

NASA's WB-57F high-altitude aircraft is carrying 29 scientific instruments up to heights of 60,000 feet (17 kilometers) to capture best-ever glimpses into this region's chemical brew and a rarely observed class of hard-to-see clouds. At this altitude the Johnson Space Center aircraft is above 90 percent of the Earth's atmosphere. The human body cannot survive without protection there, so the flight crews wear pressure suits like the original space shuttle spacesuits.

Image to left: Flying above 90 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, WB-57F pilots must wear protective pressure suits like those worn by the first space shuttle astronauts. Credit: NASA

Costa Rica provides NASA scientists with an ideal base of operations to sample this unique zone of the atmosphere. Usually Earth's two major atmospheric regions -- the troposphere and the stratosphere -- only rarely mix across a barrier called the tropopause. But near the equator there is a steady flow of air into the stratosphere. The tropopause is the portal through which chemicals and water from the lower atmosphere are pumped higher into the atmosphere.

Scientists and instruments from several NASA centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are participating in the mission. Measurements from the NASA aircraft will prove critical to the scientific value of the Aura satellite. By comparing readings from instruments on the aircraft to those on Aura, scientists can be certain that Aura's global observations are as accurate as possible.

“CR-AVE is one of the most comprehensive in a series of science and validation experiments associated with NASA’s Aura satellite” says Mike Kurylo, manager of NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Program. “The suite of aircraft and balloon measurements combined with space-based observations provides a unique perspective for examining chemical processes in a climate-changing atmosphere.”

Flights began on Jan. 14 from the Airborne Science Tropical Research Station in San Jose, Costa Rica, and continue through Feb. 9. This facility, established jointly by the Johnson Space Center WB-57 Program and Costa Rica, has been used by many of NASA's scientific aircraft.

Related Links:

+ More Images
+ CR-AVE mission Web site

Stephen Cole
Goddard Space Flight Center