The Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-NA) is a major NASA science campaign to understand the transport and transformation of gases and aerosols on transcontinental and intercontinental scales and their impact on air quality and climate. A particular focus in this study is to quantify and characterize the inflow and outflow of pollution over North America. INTEX will also provide important validation of satellite observations with ongoing satellite measurement programs, such as Terra, Aura, and Envisat. The experiment will be conducted over the continental United States during the summer of 2004 using a variety of science aircraft. Several coastal and continental sites across North America have been selected as bases of operation. The experiment will be supported by forecasts from meteorological and chemical models, surface and satellite observations, and ozone probe releases.
The INTEX-NA campaign will be greatly facilitated and enhanced by a number of concurrent national and international field campaigns. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the principal U.S. partner for NASA and will field coordinated airborne and shipboard platforms. Plans are also underway for the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and France to conduct concurrent airborne campaigns to measure the transport of pollution from North America into the eastern Atlantic and to Europe. Synthesis of the combined observations from surface, airborne, and space platforms will maximize scientific results and should directly benefit scientific understanding of air quality and its relation to climate change.
INTEX is sponsored by the NASA Office of Earth Science Tropospheric Chemistry Program.