Scientists Seek Climate
Clues in Earth's
Atmosphere
Scientists from Costa
Rica and Panama, in
collaboration with NASA,
launched a month-long
airborne mission last
month to understand the
role that tropical
clouds and storms play
in climate change.
Scientists will use the
new data to create more
accurate models of
climate change to enable
governments to make
informed policy
decisions.
More than 200
scientists, including
over 30 scientists and
students from the
University of Costa Rica
- Costa Rica's National
University - and the
Instituto Metereológo
Nacional (National
Institute of
Meteorology) are
involved in the project,
based out of San José.
NASA has invested US$20
million in the Tropical
Composition, Cloud and
Climate Coupling (TC4)
project, and Costa
Rica's National Centre
for High Technology, in
San José, and the
University of Panama, in
Las Tablas, are also
partners.
"Good science starts
with good measurements,"
says Paul Newman,
mission scientist and
atmospheric physicist at
NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center.
Using medium- and
high-altitude aircraft
to collect data, the
mission will study the
lowest layer of the
atmosphere — the
troposphere, between
0–15 kilometres above
the earth's surface —
and the tropopause, the
layer between the
troposphere and the
upper atmosphere
(stratosphere), above
the tropical eastern
Pacific ocean.
One of the main
objectives of the
project is to analyze
how cirrus clouds —
thin, transparent layers
of water vapour that lie
in the upper parts of
the atmosphere,
especially in the
Tropics — retain heat
that the ground radiates
back into space, Newman
said.
Cirrus clouds form a
'blanket' over the
globe, but the extent of
their insulating effect
is unknown. "Since we
don't understand it,
none of the models that
simulate climate change
take this into account,"
says Newman.
Aircraft will fly up to
15,000 metres and
measure the temperature
of clouds, and collect
data on ice particle
formation, wind velocity
and cloud structure to
help scientists
determine how these
clouds are formed and
how long they last.
The mission will also
look at the role that
rapidly forming, dynamic
storms play in climate
patterns.
More than 30 scientists
will fly into the heart
of these storms to
measure temperature,
humidity, precipitation,
wind velocity and gas
concentrations that will
help them understand
storms' internal
activity.
A Costa Rican ground
team will play a crucial
forecasting role, using
balloon probes and
computer simulations to
predict where the storms
and clouds will form.
Other scientists in the
group are using the data
collected by the planes
to calibrate and
validate the data of a
series of satellites
that study our
atmosphere. |
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