Stereographic Visualization of the Influence of Stratospheric Air on Ozone Layers Encountered During TRACE-P

The NASA TRAnsport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) aircraft-based measurement campaign was conducted over the northwestern Pacific Basin during March-April, 2001. The broad objectives of determining the chemical composition and evolution of Asian outflow over the western Pacific during the spring time period, and understanding the ensemble of processes that control this evolution. A defining characteristic of the TRACE-P mission was the integration of aircraft, satellite, and ground-based studies, with a particularly strong coupling between the experimental investigations and modeling studies. While the resulting suite of observational data and model results provide a rich source for unraveling the various processes impacting the composition of Asian outflow, it also presents a challenge for efficient visualization of results from the various data sets. A promising approach for visual analysis of such multi-parametered data sets is through software called the Virtual Global Explorer and Observatory (vGeo). The vGeo software facilitates the merging of data objects into a single realistic 3-D stereographic environment in which the user can view, navigate, and interact with the data. Several outflow events encountered during TRACE-P will be presented in a 3-D stereographic world using vGeo. The 3-D visualization merges TRACE-P chemical measurements, meteorological fields, and air mass trajectories into a virtual world that provides a more intuitive synthesis of the combined chemical and dynamical fields. This presentation will focus on upper tropospheric layers of elevated ozone measured during TRACE-P flights in the vicinity of the Japan Jet. Representations of potential temperature, potential vorticity and vertical velocity from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) analysis, combined with coupled air mass trajectories suggest regions of enhanced ozone encountered by the aircraft that were significantly influenced by the stratosphere.