Current Projects

OMO

OMO is the first demo mission on the new HALO research Aircraft. It is scheduled to take place in summer 2013, to study the extra-tropical free troposphere (FT), between about 8-15 km altitude. This is a sensitive region of the atmosphere in terms of the climate response to chemical composition changes. Its upper section couples the stratosphere and troposphere. In the northern hemisphere the FT is substantially impacted by the long-distance transport of air pollution, supplied by episodic pollution uplift in convection and more gradual upward transfer in the warm conveyor belts of cyclonic disturbances. The removal rates of natural and anthropogenic gases as well as the formation of ozone are to a large degree controlled by oxidation reactions in which HOx radicals (OH+HO2) play a key role. Since only very few FT measurements of radicals and precursor gases have been performed, present assessments of atmospheric composition and climate change are strongly dependent on simulations with inadequately tested chemistry and general circulation models.

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