The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) Mission: Imaging the chemistry of the global atmosphere

This article provides an overview of the NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission and a summary of selected scientific findings to date. ATom was an airborne measurements and modeling campaign aimed at characterizing the composition and chemistry of the troposphere over the most remote regions of the Pacific, Southern, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans, and examining the impact of anthropogenic and natural emissions on a global scale. These remote regions dominate global chemical reactivity and are exceptionally important for global air quality and climate. ATom data provide the in situ measurements needed to understand the range of chemical species and their reactions, and to test satellite remote sensing observations and global models over large regions of the remote atmosphere. Lack of data in these regions, particularly over the oceans, has limited our understanding of how atmospheric composition is changing in response to shifting anthropogenic emissions and physical climate change. ATom was designed as a global-scale tomographic sampling mission with extensive geographic and seasonal coverage, tropospheric vertical profiling, and detailed speciation of reactive compounds and pollution tracers. ATom flew the NASA DC-8 research aircraft over four seasons to collect a comprehensive suite of measurements of gases, aerosols, and radical species from the remote troposphere and lower stratosphere on four global circuits from 2016 to 2018. Flights maintained near-continuous vertical profiling of 0.15–13-km altitudes on long meridional transects of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins. Analysis and modeling of ATom data have led to the significant early findings highlighted here.

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Related Dataset #1 : ATom: Merged Atmospheric Chemistry, Trace Gases, and Aerosols

Related Dataset #2 : ATom: Merged Atmospheric Chemistry, Trace Gases, and Aerosols, Version 2
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Author Thompson, C. R.
Wofsy, S. C.
Prather, M. J.
Newman, P. A.
Hanisco, T. F.
Ryerson, T. B.
Fahey, D. W.
Apel, Eric C.
Brock, C. A.
Brune, W. H.
Froyd, K.
Katich, J. M.
Nicely, J. M.
Peischl, J.
Ray, E.
Veres, P. R.
Wang, Siyuan
Allen, H. M.
Asher, Elizabeth
Bian, H.
Blake, D.
Bourgeois, I.
Budney, J.
Bui, T. P.
Butler, A.
Campuzano-Jost, P.
Chang, C.
Chin, M.
Commane, R.
Correa, G.
Crounse, J. D.
Daube, B.
Dibb, J. E.
DiGangi, J. P.
Diskin, G. S.
Dollner, M.
Elkins, J. W.
Fiore, A. M.
Flynn, C. M.
Guo, H.
Hall, Samuel R.
Hannun, R. A.
Hills, Alan J.
Hintsa, E. J.
Hodzic, Alma
Hornbrook, Rebecca
Huey, L. G.
Jimenez, J. L.
Keeling, R. F.
Kim, M. J.
Kupc, A.
Lacey, Forrest
Lait, L. R.
Lamarque, Jean-François
Liu, J.
McKain, K.
Meinardi, S.
Miller, D. O.
Montzka, S. A.
Moore, F. L.
Morgan, E. J.
Murphy, D. M.
Murray, L. T.
Nault, B. A.
Neuman, J. A.
Nguyen, L.
Gonzalez, Y.
Rollins, A.
Rosenlof, K.
Sargent, M.
Schill, G.
Schwarz, J. P.
Clair, J. M. S.
Steenrod, S. D.
Stephens, Britton
Strahan, S. E.
Strode, S. A.
Sweeney, C.
Thames, A. B.
Ullmann, Kirk
Wagner, N.
Weber, R.
Weinzierl, B.
Wennberg, P. O.
Williamson, C. J.
Wolfe, G. M.
Zeng, L.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2022-03-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T16:06:09.813908
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:25488
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Thompson, C. R., Wofsy, S. C., Prather, M. J., Newman, P. A., Hanisco, T. F., Ryerson, T. B., Fahey, D. W., Apel, Eric C., Brock, C. A., Brune, W. H., Froyd, K., Katich, J. M., Nicely, J. M., Peischl, J., Ray, E., Veres, P. R., Wang, Siyuan, Allen, H. M., Asher, Elizabeth, Bian, H., Blake, D., Bourgeois, I., Budney, J., Bui, T. P., Butler, A., Campuzano-Jost, P., Chang, C., Chin, M., Commane, R., Correa, G., Crounse, J. D., Daube, B., Dibb, J. E., DiGangi, J. P., Diskin, G. S., Dollner, M., Elkins, J. W., Fiore, A. M., Flynn, C. M., Guo, H., Hall, Samuel R., Hannun, R. A., Hills, Alan J., Hintsa, E. J., Hodzic, Alma, Hornbrook, Rebecca, Huey, L. G., Jimenez, J. L., Keeling, R. F., Kim, M. J., Kupc, A., Lacey, Forrest, Lait, L. R., Lamarque, Jean-François, Liu, J., McKain, K., Meinardi, S., Miller, D. O., Montzka, S. A., Moore, F. L., Morgan, E. J., Murphy, D. M., Murray, L. T., Nault, B. A., Neuman, J. A., Nguyen, L., Gonzalez, Y., Rollins, A., Rosenlof, K., Sargent, M., Schill, G., Schwarz, J. P., Clair, J. M. S., Steenrod, S. D., Stephens, Britton, Strahan, S. E., Strode, S. A., Sweeney, C., Thames, A. B., Ullmann, Kirk, Wagner, N., Weber, R., Weinzierl, B., Wennberg, P. O., Williamson, C. J., Wolfe, G. M., Zeng, L.. (2022). The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) Mission: Imaging the chemistry of the global atmosphere. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d77h1p95. Accessed 19 August 2025.

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