2005 Polar Aura Validation Experiment (PAVE)

The Polar Aura Validation Experiment (PAVE) is a NASA-led international science mission to acquire high quality measurements of the arctic region's atmosphere to validate data from NASA's Aura satellite (launched July 15, 2004). PAVE is the third in a series of Aura validation missions to help understand the transport of gases and aerosols in the lower atmosphere (or troposphere) and their exchange with the lower stratosphere.

Utilizing the NASA DC-8 aircraft and high altitude balloons, PAVE will collect valuable science data, especially on ozone and ozone-destroying radicals from an excellent suite of atmospheric remote sensing and in situ instruments. Based from Pease Tradeport near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the European Sounding Rocket Range (ESRANGE) balloon facility in Sweden, approximately 80 scientists, managers, and support personnel will be deployed to perform the science flights in the arctic region.

The information gathered will be combined with data from the Aura satellite to validate measurements and enable improved modeling of global scale air quality and climate change predictions. Atmospheric constituents, such as ozone and water vapor in the upper troposphere are important "greenhouse gases," impacting global temperature. Aerosols tiny airborne particles 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 Earth's climate.

PAVE is sponsored by the NASA Earth Science Atmospheric Composition Focus Area and the Earth Observing System Aura satellite program.

Contacts:

Mark Schoeberl
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mark.R.Schoeberl@nasa.gov

Eric Jensen
NASA Ames Research Center
Eric.J.Jensen@nasa.gov

Science Goals:

• Obtain high quality in-situ and remote sensing measurements of the polar region for validation of the Aura satellite
• Characterize stratospheric gases, both within and outside the polar vortex
• Measure outflow from the North American continent
• Obtain lidar measurements of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, aerosols and temperature across the subtropical edge and polar vortex boundaries

Partners:

NASA scientists will work in close collaboration with researchers from numerous government and academic institutions, including the University of New Hampshire, University of California-Berkeley, University of Bremen, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Koninklijk Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Los Gatos Research, and others.

When:

January 24 February 9, 2005

Where:

The flights will originate from Pease Tradeport near Portsmouth, New Hampshire and will cover the North Atlantic and polar region. Balloon releases from Kiruna, Sweden will facilitate sampling stratospheric winter vortex air.

Links:

Mission Site:

http://www.espo.nasa.gov/ave-polar

For information about Aura:

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

For more information about NASA's DC-8 aircraft:

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/dc8_feature.html

For more information about European Sounding Rocket Range:

http://www.univ-perp.fr/fuseurop/kirun_e.htm

For more information about Pease Tradeport:

http://www.peasedev.org/