The Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) Project
Projet sur la dynamique et la chimie de la stratosphère estivale (DCOTSS)
Bowman, Kenneth P. ; Keutsch, Frank N. ; Homeyer, Cameron R. ; Sayres, David S. ; Smith, Jessica B. ; Wilmouth, David M. ; Anderson, James G. ; Atlas, Elliot L. ; Apel, Eric ; Bedka, Kristopher ; Bui, T. Paul ; Cziczo, Daniel ; Daube, Bruce ; Delaria, Erin R. ; Dykema, John ; Hanisco, Thomas F. ; Hannun, R. ; Hall, Brad ; Hintsa, Eric ; Howar, Laila ; Hurst, Dale F. ; Jacquot, Justin Louis ; Laskin, Alexander ; Li, Yaowei ; Liu, Chuntao ; Moore, Fred ; Mullendore, Gretchen ; Newman, Paul ; Pandit, Amit Kumar ; Rapp, Anita D. ; Salawitch, Ross J. ; Shen, Xiaoli ; Clair, Jason M. St ; Ueyama, Rei ; Vernier, Jean-Paul ; Wofsy, Steven C.
Année de publication
2026
Overshooting storms are convective systems with updrafts that penetrate through the tropopause into the overlying stratosphere. These storms can rapidly transport a wide variety of chemical species and aerosols from the boundary layer and free troposphere directly to the stratosphere. The central plains of the United States and the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico are two of the global hotspots for overshooting convection. While the existence of these storms has been known for several decades, the amount of tropospheric air, including water vapor, trace gases, and aerosols, transported across the tropopause is poorly understood, as is their impact on the dynamics, chemistry, and radiative balance of the stratosphere. Climate models suggest that as Earth's climate continues to warm, overshooting convection over the United States may increase, potentially causing changes to stratospheric composition and transport. To address these scientific questions, the NASA ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft flew 31 missions during the summers of 2021 and 2022 to make observations of the outflow from overshooting storms in the stratosphere over North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean as part of the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) project. The ER-2 carried a payload of 12 instruments to measure meteorological parameters, water and its isotopologues, trace gases, and aerosol properties. Ozone, water vapor, and aerosol sondes were also launched on balloons during the field deployments. This paper describes the science goals of the DCOTSS project, the aircraft measurement strategy, the data produced by the project, and highlights of science results to date. Significance Statement During the summers of 2021 and 2022, the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) project used the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft. DCOTSS was the first research mission designed specifically to make observations of the outflow from overshooting thunderstorms in the stratosphere. The ER-2 carried instruments to measure meteorological parameters, trace gases, water vapor and its isotopologues, and aerosol properties. DCOTSS vastly expanded the available observational data and has led to significant advances in understanding the occurrence of overshooting storms and their impact on the stratosphere, including background conditions, transport mechanisms at different scales, ozone chemistry, and volcanic aerosols. All DCOTSS data are publicly available from the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC).</div>
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