Understanding Atmospheric Processes:
Answering the "How?" and "Why?" Questions

The guiding principle of the Aeronomy Laboratory's research is: to meet the nation's most-pressing needs for scientific information about the atmosphere and its relation to the activities of humankind.

On the broadest level, the Aeronomy Laboratory's focus within the atmospheric sciences is to advance the scientific understanding of atmospheric processes, with the aim of enhancing the capability to observe, understand and predict the behavior of the atmosphere.

The chemical, radiative and dynamical processes of the atmosphere are the gears, belts and pulleys of atmospheric change. As such, their identification and characterization are necessary for understanding and predicting the behavior of regional and global phenomena, which is at the heart of NOAA's mission.

During the last two-plus decades, the Aeronomy Laboratory has provided scientific leadership and discovery in studies related to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. That research has contributed strongly to the scientific information that has formed the foundation for decisions to protect the ozone layer under the United Nations Montreal Protocol. Over the last decade, the Aeronomy Laboratory's research has increasingly focused on the chemical processes that control the characteristics of greenhouse gases and aerosols (airborne fine particles) in the lower atmosphere and surface-level ozone pollution. Climate and air quality are two topics that are a high priority for decision makers at all levels (private sector, state, national, and international). As in the case of the ozone layer, the Aeronomy Lab plays leading roles in providing decision-support scientific information on these topics.

• Climate Change

  • Climate Forcing: Greenhouse Gases & Aerosols

  • Global Tropospheric Ozone Production

  • Climate Dynamics & El Niño

• Regional Air Chemistry

• Stratospheric Ozone Layer