Ice and Shadow

April 21, 2008

A DC-8 casts its shadow over the Bering Sea, as it flies 350 feet over the sea's icy surface in this image taken on April 12, 2008.

This month, during the third International Polar Year, NASA began an extensive field campaign to investigate and measure the chemistry in the Arctic's lower atmosphere. The Arctic region is a beacon of global climate change because it is an atmospheric receptor of pollution from the northern mid-latitude continents, manifested by thick aerosol layers called arctic haze, and by an accumulation of persistent pollutant heavy metals such as mercury.

NASA's Earth Science Project Office is winding down the first phase of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites, (ARCTAS) project. The DC-8 picture is one of the aircraft deployed by ARCTAS and is equipped with a 20-instrument airborne laboratory operated by 35 scientists.