The Ocean – Atmosphere – Sea Ice – Snowpack (OASIS) program was created in 2002 to bring together an international group of multidisciplinary field researchers, laboratory scientists, and modelers to study chemical and physical interactions and exchange processes between the title reservoirs, with a primary focus on the impact on tropospheric chemistry and climate feedbacks.
- PASC began in the early 1990s working towards coordinating polar tropospheric and snow/ice chemistry research. PASC helped identify knowledge gaps in polar atmosphere and snow chemistry along with aiding in understanding the role of tropospheric chemistry of Polar Regions in global change. PASC used atmospheric measurements and ice core records to analyze the human-induced changes of the polar atmospheric environment. A key research development was the measurement of the atmospheric composition of the middle to upper troposphere at the Summit in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Advanced research on the dispersal and decay mechanisms for stratospheric aerosols. SUTA sought to find out if stratospheric aerosols serve as nuclei for cloud formation in the upper troposphere and stratosphere and if there is “background” stratospheric aerosol, what the source is. SUTA sought to find out if volcanic emissions on the stratosphere are adequately characterized in current models. SUTA also sought to find out if stratospheric aerosols are frozen or if they exist as supercooled liquid particles at low temperatures.
TRAGEX sought to improve the understanding of increased concentrations and fluxes between the soil and atmosphere of trace gasses such as CO2,, CH4, N2O impacts on climate and precipitation. TRAGEX studied the factors controlling the fluxes and improved the ability to predict future fluxes. The project greatly improved understanding of the fluxes of these gasses in areas such as Russia, China and temperate South America, which were largely unknown prior to TRAGEX.
TARFOX was an IGAC activity that operated from 10-31 July 1996 and was established to provide information about the direct effects of tropospheric aerosols on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The principal goals were to:
As of 2008, for the first time, the majority of the world’s population was living in urban areas, many in megacities (with populations over 10 million). Megacities are not only the center of growing economies, but are also large sources of air pollutants and climate-forcing agents.
Archive page of the first phase of TOAR, 2014-2019
Background
Fundamental atmospheric chemistry research provides essential data used in all practical (laboratory, field measurements, remote sensing) and theoretical (climate modeling, pollution modeling, cloud microphysics) aspects of scientific endeavor.
SPARTAN was an IGAC sponsored activity from 2016-2018
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a leading risk factor for premature mortality. Additional attention is needed to improve global estimates of PM2.5 exposure.
Under the guiding principle of providing equal opportunity for all scientists in the Americas, the IGAC Americas Working Group aims to build a cohesive network and foster the next generation of atmospheric scientists with the ultimate goal of contributing to development of a scientific community focused on building collective knowledge in/for the Americas. There is a priority on bringing together scientists from across the entirety of the Americas. To this end, the Americas Working Group seeks to: