News

NASA’s Global Hawk aircraft takes off from its base operations in Edwards, California to fly near the equator over the Pacific Ocean in the tropical tropopause layer.

NASA and Partners begin 2015 CAST ATTREX Mission

NASA scientists will study the movement of water vapor and greenhouse gases in the tropical tropopause region during this year's CAST ATTREX Mission

Read More:
A sixth grade class at Central Elementary School in Tioga, North Dakota participated in NASA's 2014 Operation Ice Bridge Mission using the Mission Tool Suite for Education (MTSE) website.

NASA Brings the Spirit of Adventure into the Classroom

Across the United States and around the world, students now can participate in deployed NASA Airborne Science Missions.

Read More:
Students and teachers from Guam High School learn about how ATTREX scientists control their instruments on Global Hawk from the Payload Mobile Operations Facility.

NASA Brings Science to Life in Guam Classrooms

In addition to doing cutting-edge atmospheric science, ATTREX team shared the excitement of their scientific mission with students, teachers in Guam.

Read More:
NASA Global Hawk at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam

NASA Completes ATTREX Flights in Search of Climate Change Clues

Science flights from Guam during the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment tracked upper atmosphere changes to help researchers understand how they ...

Read More:
NASA's unmanned Global Hawk is pushed out of a hangar on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in preparation for an ATTREX science flight over the Western Pacific.

NASA Completes First ATTREX Science Flight from Guam

A lengthy science flight over Western Pacific tracked changes in upper atmosphere to help researchers understand how the changes affect Earth's climat...

Read More:
NASA Global Hawk

NASA Global Hawk Ready for 2014 ATTREX Mission

A NASA Global Hawk recently completed a checkout flight of science instruments to be used in the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment.

Read More:
ER-2 pilot in cockpit at 70K ft

Airborne Science Program Trailer

The latest video on the ATTREX mission features footage taken at 70,000 ft from the ER-2 cockpit.  This and other videos on the mission can be found ...

ATTREX-EPO

Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX) will perform a series of measurement campaigns using the long-range NASA Global Hawk (GH) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to investigate:

  • The impact of stratospheric water vapor on Earth's energy budget and climate.
  • Future changes in stratospheric humidity and ozone concentration as a response to climate change.
  • To better understand the physical processes and chemical composition of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) which is the region of the atmosphere that controls the composition of the stratosphere.

Project Schedule


Jan-Feb 2013: Dryden Flight Research Center, California
Jan-Feb 2014: Guam
Jun-Jul 2014: Dryden Flight Research Center, California

ATTREX is focused on inspiring, engaging and educating the younger generations. The overarching goal of this Education and Public Outreach program is to exploit NASA’s unique position to engage and motivate young people to follow STEM careers by providing them with first hand experiences and exposure to current NASA missions, aircraft, sciences, and most importantly, the people making it happen.

See one of our ATTREX videos which explain our mission and its objectives: