HALO TACTS and SALSA: Mission co-ordination for TACTS: (Transport And Composition in the UT/LMS) and SALSA (Seasonality of Air mass transport and origin in the Lowermost Stratosphere using the HALO Aircraft)

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TACTS has been chosen as one of the first scientific missions for the new HALO aircraft by the scientific steering committee (German: Wissenschaftlicher Lenkungsausschuss, WLA) to be carried out with priority. In the initial planning, TACTS was scheduled for the fall of 2009. The mission has been proposed and is co-ordinated by the applicant. The TACTS mission will consist of three transects between Oberpfaffenhofen and the Cape Verde Islands to measure a wide range of trace gases. The scientific aim is to investigate the strong change in composition of the lowermost stratosphere observed between summer and fall (e.g. Engel et al., 2006). Here, I apply for assistance in the co-ordination of the campaign, and for the additional flight and mission certification costs for the University institutes involved in TACTS. In agreement with the scientific partners involved in TACTS, I further apply for an extension of the TACTS campaign, in order to cover an entire annual cycle of trace gas observations in the UTLS region. This extension will be called SALSA (Seasonality of Air mass transport and origin in the Lowermost Stratosphere using the HALO Aircraft). The scientific rationale for SALSA is that many aspects of Stratosphere-Troposphere-exchange (STE) have a strong seasonality and the driving processes can only be understood if an entire annual cycle of observations is available. A prerequisite for detecting possible long term changes in composition, air mass origin and transport pathways in the UTLS is a thorough quantification of this large seasonal cycle. This is one of the main goals of SALSA. The co-ordination activity will consist of the logistical organisation and preparation of the campaign, the organisation of the payload and the communication between DLR, the instrument teams and the support teams. Quality Control of the data set and co-ordination of scientific studies between the groups involved in TACTS/SALSA are also part of this proposal. The main aim of this proposal is thus to provide a high quality data set needed to investigate the scientific question of air mass transport into the lowermost stratosphere between summer and fall and in the frame of the extension of the project, the provision of an annual cycle of trace distributions in the UTLS, in order to provide a more complete picture, which will allow the investigation of seasonal influences on the UTLS and the underlying processes by combining the observations with model studies.