Collaborative Research: HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) of Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gases

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

The need to characterize the increase and distribution of greenhouse gases is a first order scientific goal of the atmospheric composition and climate communities. The HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) program will provide global, meridional coverage, via vertical profiles throughout the depth of the troposphere enabling closure and inversion of global budgets of critical greenhouse gases (e.g. carbon dioxide, CO2; carbon monoxide, CO; and methane, CH4), and related long-lived tracers and ratios (e.g. the oxygen/nitrogen ratio, O2/N2). This suite of chemical measurements, made from 80 N to 70 S, and repeated over approximately six monthly intervals, will provide a unique and definitive data set, to be used in inversion and other global modeling analyses of carbon cycle gases. Observed gradients in the hemispheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are critical to our ability to predict the fate of anthropogenic emissions of carbon gases. Previous chemical transport modeling studies used to infer CO2 surface fluxes, sources and sinks have been generally constrained to using boundary layer CO2 concentrations. The field experiments will thus take advantage of transformative capabilities newly available to the atmospheric science community provided by the use of the HIAPER G-V aircraft platform. This work is supported under the NSF Carbon and Water in the Earth System solicitation, an interdisciplinary funding opportunity from the Directorate of Geosciences.