DOE OSTI · 2587097
The NASA ACTIVATE Mission
Abstract
The NASA Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions over the Western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) conducted 162 joint flights with two aircraft over the northwest Atlantic to study aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs), which represent the largest uncertainty in estimating total anthropogenic radiative forcing. The combination of a high-flying King Air and low-flying HU-25 Falcon, equipped with remote sensing and in situ instruments, characterized trace gases, aerosol particles, clouds, and meteorological variables with data collected nearly simultaneously below, within, and above marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds. Flights spanning warm and cold seasons across 3 years (2020–22) provided a broad range of conditions associated with aerosol particles, cloud properties (including particle size and phase), and meteorology, ideally suited for robust ACI calculations and assessing how well models simulate a wide range of MBL clouds from stratiform to cumulus. ACTIVATE data suggest that drivers of cloud droplet number concentration N d , including aerosol particles and MBL dynamics, vary between winter and summer months with a stronger potential to convert aerosol particles into cloud droplets in winter. Models of varying complexity not only highlight some skills in simulating winter and summer cloud types but also identify challenges that still need to be addressed such as treatment of turbulence, wet scavenging, and mesoscale organization. Remote sensing advances range from new retrieval methods for N d , cloud phase classification, vertically resolved aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei number concentration, and ocean surface wind speed. This work describes these scientific and technological advances along with efforts in outreach and open data science.
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Sorooshian, Armin [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000222432264), Siu, Leong Wai [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Butler, Kayley [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)], Brunke, Michael A. [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Cairns, Brian [NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States)], Chellappan, Seethala [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Chen, Jingyi [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (China)], Choi, Yonghoon [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Crosbie, Ewan C. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Cutler, Lauren [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], DiGangi, Joshua P. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Diskin, Glenn S. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Ferrare, Richard A. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Hair, Johnathan W. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Hostetler, Chris A. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Kirschler, Simon [German Aerospace Center, Cologne (Germany); Univ. of Mainz (Germany)], Kleb, Mary M. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Li, Xiang-Yu [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)], Liu, Hongyu [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA (United States)], McComiskey, Allison [National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)], Namdari, Soodabeh [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Painemal, David [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Schlosser, Joseph S. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Shingler, Taylor [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Shook, Michael A. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Silva, Sam [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)], Sinclair, Kenneth [NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)], Smith, William L. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Soloff, Cassidy [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Stamnes, Snorre [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Tang, Shuaiqi [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China)], Thornhill, Kenneth L. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Tornow, Florian [NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)], Tselioudis, George [NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States)], Van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan [SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden (Netherlands)], Voigt, Christiane [German Aerospace Center, Cologne (Germany); Univ. of Mainz (Germany)], Vömel, Holger [National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)], Wang, Hailong [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000219944402), Winstead, Edward L. [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA (United States)], Xu, Yike [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Zeng, Xubin [Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)], Zhang, Bo [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000307464732), Ziemba, Luke [NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)], Zuidema, Paquita [Univ. of Miami, FL (United States)]. 2025-08-01. The NASA ACTIVATE Mission. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-24-0136.1
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