We are proposing an aircraft experiment called the North American Airborne Mercury Experiment (NAAMEX). The NAAMEX experiment builds on our successful deployment of a high time resolution method to measure elemental and oxidized Hg by aircraft (Lyman and Jaffe 2011). This experiment will use the NCAR C-130 aircraft in two 3-week deployments: one based in the Western U.S. and the other in the Eastern U.S. Both will take place in the summer of 2013.

NAAMEX will incorporate a number of high quality measurements, including speciated Hg, CO, O3, NOx, aerosols, HOx, hydrocarbons, halocarbons and halogens. We will also be fully integrated with multiple models operating in forecast mode and used for post-mission analysis. The experiment is a partnership between the Universities of Washington, Colorado, Georgia Tech, UC-Irvine and MIT. Dan Jaffe and Lyatt Jaegle are the mission and co-mission leads, respectively.

Click here for: Updated NAAMEX White Paper

Click here for: NAAMEX C-130 Facilities Request

 

Key scientific objectives and questions:

• Constrain emissions of mercury from major source regions in the United States. What is the spatial distribution of mercury in the boundary layer in the western US, Midwest, and Eastern USA? Are observations consistent with bottom-up emissions inventories? Can we separate US sources from global sources?


• Quantify the distribution and chemical transformations of speciated mercury in the free troposphere. How does the speciation of mercury change with increasing height in the free troposphere over the US? How is this speciation affected by atmospheric oxidation, precipitation, cloud-processing, and stratospheric intrusions? How does the partitioning of mercury evolve in the outflow of emission regions?

For more information: contact Dan Jaffe, University of Washington-Bothell (djaffe@u.washington.edu, 425-352-5357)