Atmospheric composition changes affect air quality, weather, climate, and critical constituents such as ozone. Atmospheric exchange links terrestrial and oceanic pools within the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles. Solar radiation affects atmospheric chemistry and is thus a critical factor in atmospheric composition. Atmospheric composition is central to Earth system dynamics, since the atmosphere integrates surface emissions globally on time scales from weeks to years and couples several environmental issues.
NASA’s research for furthering our understanding of atmospheric composition is geared to providing an improved prognostic capability for key processes and issues such as the recovery of stratospheric ozone and its impacts on surface ultraviolet radiation, the evolution of greenhouse gases and their impacts on climate, and the evolution of tropospheric ozone and aerosols and their impacts on climate and air quality. Toward this end, research within the Atmospheric Composition Focus Area addresses the following science questions: • How is atmospheric composition changing? • What trends in atmospheric composition and solar radiation are driving global climate? • How does atmospheric composition respond to and affect global environmental change? • What are the effects of global atmospheric composition and climate changes on regional air quality? • How will future changes in atmospheric composition affect ozone, climate, and global air quality?
Proposal Due Date: Aug. 16, 2024
The modeling and analysis effort addresses the following research issues:
- Tropospheric air quality and oxidation efficiency,
- Pollution sourced aerosols where they impact cloud properties,
- Stratospheric chemistry, including ozone depletion, and
- Chemistry/climate interactions.
Studies of long-term trends in atmospheric composition (potentially using both current and past mission data sets) are also of interest to the program, where the connection between cause and effect is elucidated using models. The program is interested in studies that integrate observations from multiple instruments with models to address attribution and predictions.