HIPPO IV: Research Flight 03 - Alaska to Hawaii

June 18, 2011

The flight plan had the HIPPO crew flying form Anchorage, Alaska, west to Cold Bay where they did a missed approach at a local airport. From Cold Bay, Alaska they flew south to Kona, Hawaii, along the way they did their "usual RF03" 7 dips ranging from about 1000' above the surface of the ocean to about 41,000'.

The earth's largest volcano - Mauna Loa - is located in Hawaii. NOAA has a station on top of the volcano where they measure atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). While measurements taken at that station is from a single fixed point, the measurements (and atmospheric sampling) taken from the GV as part of the HIPPO campaign come from a vertical profile of the atmosphere. The researchers took many samples near Hawaii and the volcano - from 1000' to 45,000' - and these can be compared to the CO2 measurements taken from the NOAA station on top of Mauna Loa