About AEROMMA

Overview

Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) is a comprehensive study led by NOAA's Chemical Sciences Laboratory investigating anthropogenic and marine emissions that alter tropospheric composition and impact air quality and climate over North America. The AEROMMA campaign brings together airborne, ground, and satellite observing systems, and state-of-the-art air quality and climate models, to investigate emerging research needs in urban air quality, atmospheric interactions at the marine-urban interface, marine emissions, satellite-based observations of atmospheric composition, and climate change.

AEROMMA observations validate new technology for space-based observations of atmospheric composition

AEROMMA provides observations for evaluating the NASA Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) and NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) trace gas and aerosol products, and informs the future NOAA Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) constellation. AEROMMA observations evaluate NOAA’s next generation weather-chemistry models and chemical data assimilation of atmospheric composition satellite data.

NOAA research identified volatile chemical products (VCPs) as a major source of man-made emissions in urban areas that contribute to ozone and PM_2.5

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) include personal care products, cleaning agents, coatings and paints, adhesives, and insecticides. In some densely populated urban areas, VCPs are a larger source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than motor vehicle tailpipe exhaust.

VOCs (including VCPs) contribute to ground-level ozone and PM_2.5, which are hazardous air pollutants that lead to 100,000+ premature deaths and $1T in damages annually in the U.S.

A recent NOAA discovery redefined the marine sulfur cycle, prompting a renewed look at oceanic sulfur impacts on climate

Ocean-emitted sulfur, primarily dimethyl sulfide (DMS), reacts in the air to produce sulfate aerosol particles. These aerosols are important for global climate because they can act to form marine clouds and/or brighten existing marine clouds that reflect incoming sunlight. Oceanic sulfur is also an important natural source of sulfate aerosols to the stratosphere. Stratospheric sulfate aerosols reflect sunlight and have a cooling effect on the planet.

CSL's discovery of an additional DMS oxidation product (HPMTF) shows that the marine sulfur cycle in current climate models is incomplete (Veres et al., PNAS, 2020).

AEROMMA expands upon recent NOAA research findings to improve our understanding of air pollution in a changing environment

Anticipated outcomes:

Quantification of emissions (including VOCs and NOx) that lead to ozone and fine particulates (PM_2.5)
Assessment of emissions recovery following the COVID-19 economic slowdown
Reduction of uncertainties in global climate models due to marine aerosols formed by natural ocean sulfur emissions
Improvement in the representation of emissions and chemical and physical processes in the next generation NOAA weather-chemistry and air quality forecasting models
Comprehensive measurements for validating TEMPO and JPSS satellite observations and proof-of-concept testing for NOAA's planed next-gen GeoXO satellite

Overview

AEROMMA observations validate new technology for space-based observations of atmospheric composition

NOAA research identified volatile chemical products (VCPs) as a major source of man-made emissions in urban areas that contribute to ozone and PM2.5

A recent NOAA discovery redefined the marine sulfur cycle, prompting a renewed look at oceanic sulfur impacts on climate

AEROMMA expands upon recent NOAA research findings to improve our understanding of air pollution in a changing environment

NOAA research identified volatile chemical products (VCPs) as a major source of man-made emissions in urban areas that contribute to ozone and PM_2.5