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DIAL system used for TRACE-P
Aerospace Projects Writer William McCabe (in background) is a NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., electrical technician for the Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system. This Langley instrument is onboard Dryden's Airborne Science DC-8 taking part in the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) mission based in Hong Kong and Yokota Air Base, Japan. DIAL studies ozone and aerosol levels in troposphere. DIAL was also onboard the DC-8 for the NASA-sponsored SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) conducted in Kiruna, Sweden, during the winter of 1999-2000. SAGE III, or the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment, an instrument on the Meteor 3M satellite (to be launched the summer of 2001) uses a technique called solar occultation to measure ozone, aerosols, water vapor and NO2. Due to chemical loss mechanisms, Langley's lidar detected more than a 40 percent ozone depletion in the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex from Dec. 1999 to mid-March 2000. The tubing seen in the ceiling of the DC-8, unrelated to the DIAL, is the University of New Hampshire's Talbot aerosol sampling exhaust-venturi apparatus. It helps create a vacuum that will enable more air to pass through the experimental probe that protrudes out a port on the side of the aircraft. |
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Responsible NASA Official: John Childress For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group Page Curator:WD-Team Modified: March 26, 2001 |
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