HIPPO (HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observation experiment)

•The goal of HIPPO is to provide critical tests of global models of atmospheric gases and aerosols, especially Carbon Cycle gases, major Greenhouse species, and halocarbons. The experiment is designed to distinguish errors associated with sources and sinks from those due to model simulation transport and model structure. It is also a voyage of discovery since no comparable data set has existed previously.

•HIPPO has successfully acquired three sets of global, fine-grained atmospheric data for multiple species of different source/sink distributions, at the surface, in profiles, and in under-sampled regions of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic. Two more HIPPO flight series are planned for June—July and August—September 2011 to complete the seasonal component of the design.

•No major failures have occurred for any sensor, and no part of any of the flight series (11 flights in each) had to be abandoned. Minor schedule delays and occasional outages of particular sensors were accommodated by flexible mission design and multiple measurements of key species.

HIPPO_2 Nov 2009

HIPPO_3 Mar-Apr 2010HIPPO_1 Jan 2009

preHIPPO Apr-Jun 2008

HIPPO itinerary A global mission has 11 flight segments in 3 weeks; denotes PBL sample (~ 150 in each global program).

Day of Year

H1 H3 P-H H4 H5 H2

HIPPO Statistics

•National Science Foundation •National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

2009 2010 2008 2011 2011 2009

HIPPO Sponsors

To Date: 156 days of field measurements, 524 profiles

CO2 CH4 COHIPPO sections, January 2009

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Carbon Cycle Highlight: CH4 release from Arctic ecosystemsThere is very strong interest in determining if Arctic warming is leading to large releases of CO2 and CH4. But strong pollution inputs into the Arctic mask these diffuse emissions.

The HIPPO-2 transect in early November was a golden time to study this phenomenon: soils were still warm, but biomass fires were over and the Arctic airmass did not yet cover northern pollution sources. We found very strong pollution signals high in the Arctic atmosphere (blue points, a surprise in itself), and the unmistakable signature of non-pollution inputs in the lower atmosphere over the whole Arctic Basin (red points).(E. Kort, S. Wofsy, Harvard)

Carbon Cycle Highlight: CO2 Seasonal cycle propagationInverse models of the carbon cycle give conflicting results in part because they rely on data from surface stations, and various models give different results for the rate of propagation of seasonal changes in the middle troposphere.

Data from November and January show the Arctic filling up with CO2 rapidly, with seasonal signals transported isentropically, rather than vertically or horizontally (note the vertical axis is Potential Temperature). Accurate representation of the "warm conveyor belt", and other jet-stream phenomena, may hold the key to improved CO2 modeling. (B. Stephens, NCAR)

color scales differ

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Highlights: Sources of N2O

The observed distribution of N2O was completely different than predicted by models, even those that gave excellent results when inverted using surface data, and which did well for SF6. Inverse modeling using the ACTM model of P. Patra and K. Ishijima showed that N2O from strong sources in S. and S. E. Asia are lofted into the middle tropical troposphere. Since this part of the distribution had never been seen before, models did not previously attribute global sources correctly. (E. Kort, Harvard; P. Patra, K. Ishijima (JAMSTEC))

Biomass-burning from SE Asia

Asian pollution lofted high into the Arctic troposphere; "blackened" atmosphere in November, 2009.

Biomass burning plumes from SE Asia contributed to gigantic BC loadings between ITCZ and ~40°N

Very low BC loadings in southern hemisphere (SH)—much lower than models

Large BC loadings in northern hemisphere (NH) with loadings comparable to those in urban areas, originating in SE Asia (movie)

Strong interhemispheric gradient at the ITCZ

HIPPO-3, April 2010 Southbound

Low BC in SH

HIGHLIGHTS: BLACK CARBONAPRIL 2010

BC results from J Schwarz, R. Spackman, D. Fahey (NOAA); Movie courtesy Brad Pierce, NOAA

RAQMS CO simulation

Notable features of the mission• Very strong interest from modeling groups, rapid

sharing of observations and model results.• Few operational issues (so far…). • Tall poles identified, solved, in advance.• Strong NCAR EOL/RAF management, Mission

Manager (Pavel Romashkin), flight crew; adaptation to unusual mission profile.

• Success of HAIS sensors. • Strong science team.• Outreach via social media, professional website.

Data managementPre-release data • Merged data sets to the team within 24 hours. • Provisional data to cooperating modeling groups

(i.e. anyone asking) and TCCON within 6-8 weeks.Data Release• Data management at NCAR (Janine Aquino)• Public portal, metadata, data protocol at CDIAC

(Tom Boden, Sig Christensen)• Outreach website, social media (Allison Rockwell)

Websites for HIPPO

• HIPPO Project Page (http://www.eol.ucar.edu/hippo/ ) full data sets, links to all of the sites

• Outreach (http://hippo.ucar.edu )• Public Portal at CDIAC (http://hippo.ornl.gov/ )• Instant turnaround via postings on

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/~swofsy • Moving-target data upload and download (team use):

ftp to/from : catalog.eol.ucar.edu