An overview of the Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 1998 campaign

Abstract

The Arctic Airborne Measurement Program (AAMP) was planned to investigate the transport, exchange and chemical processes of gas and aerosol in the Arctic atmosphere in early spring, and further to understand their roles in global change. An instrumented aircraft, a Gulfstream II (G-11) twin-jet plane, was used for airborne measurements in the troposphere and lower stratosphere of the Arctic. For the AAMP 1998 campaign, the G-II was equipped with CO2 and O3 concentration measurement systems, gas and aerosol sampling systems, aerosol particle counters, and the PMS 1D and 2D airborne particle probes. The aircraft was flown from Japan to Svalbard via Alaska, passing over the North Pole, and on the reverse route, in the first half of March 1998. The approximate cruising altitude was 12 km for long-range flights. Vertical profiles of gas and aerosol concentrations were observed over Spitsbergen, Svalbard and Barrow, Alaska. A convective cloud system associated with a polar low was observed over the Norwegian Sea. Another cloud observation was made for marine boundary layer clouds over the open sea off Spitsbergen.