IMPEX: Intercontinental and Mega-city PollutionExperiment

Earth Science Division - NASA Ames Research Center • 2006

National Science Foundation C-130on the ramp at Paine Field, Seattle,WA.

Inter-comparison flights wingtip towingtip the NASA DC-8 providedinstrument calibration between aircraft.

Intercontinental Mega-city Pollution Experiment was managedby the Ames, Earth Science Project Office out of Seattle,Washington. The experiment was a collaborative effort betweenthe NASA DC-8 and the NSF C-130 aircraft measuring theintercontinental flow of pollutants from Asia into NorthAmerica. The IMPEX portion of the coordinated INTEX missionwas designed to investigate several issues that occur out of Asiaand into North America. The NASA DC-8 aircraft, based inHawaii and Alaska, provided early interception of Asianpollution plums traveling across the Pacific ocean. The NSF C-130 aircraft engaged the same air mass to characterize the agingof chemicals several days later, as they traveled into NorthAmerica. In the experiment the Asian pollution plums layeredstructure was also characterized.

The NSF C-130 platform was chosen because it is best suited forlower tropospheric and boundary layer (lower altitude) studiesincluding processes of exchange with the free troposphere.Coordinated flights expanded the scale of measurements and studyprocesses of evolution under a variety of conditions. Several inter-comparison flights with the NASA DC-8, as well as, over fixedpoints were conducted to develop a unified data set.

This very successful mission was conducted in the March andApril of 2006.

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NSF C-130 Atmospheric Chemistry Instrument layout.