ATom Postcard - Samoa to New Zealand
Principal Investigator Steven Wofsy of Harvard University and atmospheric scientist Paul Newman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center sent back a video postcard of the second two legs of the Atmospheric Tomography, or ATom mission. They and the science team traversed the tropical Pacific from Kona, Hawaii to Pago Pago, American Samoa, and then to Christchurch, New Zealand.
The ATom mission aboard NASA’s DC-8 aircraft and flying laboratory is sampling world-wide in one of the most extensive surveys of the atmosphere to date, measuring over 200 gases as well as airborne particles. The science team is particularly interested in methane, tropospheric ozone and black carbon particles, which have strong effects on climate and which all have both human and natural origins.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- Michael Randazzo (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)
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Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Science writer
- Ellen T. Gray (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Scientist
- Paul Newman (NASA/GSFC)
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Videographer
- Steve S. Parcel (Arcata)
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Principal investigator
- Steven Wofsy (Harvard University)
Missions
This page is related to the following missions:Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, August 16, 2016.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:48 PM EDT.



![On its second worldwide tour, the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) team starts by surveying the north’s polar regions during winter, which is marked by a build-up of pollution from the United States, Canada, northern China, and Russia. In the spring, sunlight spurs chemical reactions that remove those pollutants and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.Music credit: Ice Lands by Rik Carter [PRS]Complete transcript available.](/vis/a010000/a012500/a012508/LARGE_MP4-12508_ATom1_Alaska_large.00721_print.jpg)



