NETCARE 2014 POLAR6 aircraft campaign

A large-scale aircraft campaign (on the German POLAR6 aircraft) took place in July 2014, based out of Resolute Bay, Nunavut, aimed to assess the different roles that oceanic input and long range transport from lower latitudes play in driving Arctic atmospheric composition. For five days in late July, the aircraft also sampled emissions from the Amundsen icebreaker, as a case study of how ship emissions may lead to effects on the Arctic atmosphere, including clouds. With large scale commercial shipping likely to occur in the Arctic with sea ice retreat, a firm understanding of the processes governing the impacts of ship emissions is needed.

           This campaign was a collaboration of NETCARE university scientists with Environment Canada, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Max Planck Institute at Mainz and the University of Mainz, which will all have instrumentation on the plane. LATMOS (France) provided forecasting support. The POLAR6 is a DC-3 (built in 1942 for wartime service) operated by AWI that has been entirely re-built and outfitted for polar studies Typical flight profiles during the four-week-long, 90-flight-hour NETCARE campaign included altitude profiles to 20,000 feet to assess vertical structure of the atmosphere and long range transport, spatial studies over ice and open water to assess biological sources of particles, and plume emission studies of the Amundsen icebreaker in Lancaster Sound.


           The campaign started with equipment integration in June 2014 and a test flight at Muskoka airport on June 27, with the first planned Arctic flight on July 3 from Resolute Bay, Nunavut.  Flights finished on July 23, before flying back to Muskoka for de-integration of the equipment.



           Institutions Involved:

           ● Environment and Climate Change Canada

           ● University of Toronto

           ● University of British Columbia

           ● University of Calgary

           ● Alfred Wegener Institute

           ● University of Mainz

           ● Max Planck Institute

           ● LATMOS



           Data sets:

           ● Atmospheric gas phase species

           ● Atmospheric aerosol particle size and number density

           ● Atmospheric aerosol particle composition

           ● Numbers of liquid water cloud forming particles

           ● Aircraft data and meteorology