NOAA research in the stratosphere is taking off

Cold War bomber plane takes off with a new career. Credit: NOAA

A converted Cold War bomber packed with sensitive instruments is investigating atmospheric chemistry and aerosols over the Arctic this month in the most ambitious NOAA airborne stratospheric research mission yet.

The project, dubbed SABRE, is one element of NOAA’s  growing Earth’s Radiation Budget research program, an effort to provide baseline observations of the stratosphere and other elements of Earth’s climate system to inform evaluations of potential future efforts to slow global warming by modifying the amount of heat captured by the atmosphere.

“Processes in the stratosphere can change climate at the Earth's surface,” said  Karen Rosenlof, the Chemical Science Laboratory’s senior scientist for climate and climate change. “Satellites give us important information, but not everything we need to know. SABRE measurements will help to assess the increasing impacts to the stratosphere through space flight or deliberate climate intervention.”

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