14 DAY TRIAL // After spending around 36 months flying over the entire world – from the Arctic to Antarctica – experts with the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) campaign announce that they have sufficient data to compile the first detailed map of the global distribution of greenhouse gases and particles.
Creating such a map is absolutely essential for understanding how carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), aerosols, soot, and other gases and particles, affect our planet's climate. By feeding the information into a computer model, Earth's climate future might also be inferred with greater accuracy.
HIPPO was made possible by funds provided by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSF provided the heavily-modified Gulfstream V aircraft that carried out the bulk of the research.
The study team included experts from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the Harvard University, NOAA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), the University of Miami and the Princeton University.
One of the things that allowed the researchers to collect the amount of data they did was the fact that the research jet has a range of more than 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers). It is known as the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER).
“This has been the most ambitious project to date for the NSF Gulfstream V aircraft, or HIAPER. It has produced an unprecedented wealth of data on greenhouse gases and black carbon particles throughout the atmosphere,” Anne-Marie Schmoltner explains.
She is the program director for atmospheric chemistry at NSF. According to the expert, the NSF aircraft – which is operated by NCAR – is equipped with a suite of scientific instruments that can scan multiple atmospheric parameters at the same time.
“With HIPPO, we now have views of whole slices of the atmosphere. We've been quite surprised by the abundance of certain atmospheric components and the locations where they are most common,” researcher Steven Wofsy adds.
The expert is the principal investigator of the HIPPO campaign, and holds an appointment as an atmospheric scientist at the Harvard University. He says that data were collected at altitudes ranging from 500 feet (150 meters) to as high as 45,000 feet (13,750 meters), providing high resolution levels.
“Tracking carbon dioxide and other gases with only surface measurements has been like snorkeling with a really foggy mask. Finally, HIPPO is giving us a clear view of what's really out there,” principal investigator and NCAR scientist Britton Stephens concludes.