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NASA and URCA: The Adventure Continues to Study the Climate
NASA and URCA: The Adventure Continues to Study the Climate
NASA, in partnership with the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) through the AEROLAB research and innovation hub of the GSMA (UMR CNRS 7331) joint research unit, continues its scientific journey in the study of atmospheric aerosols. Through the BalNeO program (Balloon Network for Stratospheric Aerosol Observation), a new milestone has been reached to better understand these particles in three dimensions and their impact on the climate.
Understanding Aerosols: A Scientific Challenge
Since the 1970s, satellites have provided valuable insights into the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere. However, these data remain imperfect: altitude and time resolution is limited, forcing researchers to rely on assumptions to fill in the missing information.
Aerosols, fine particles suspended in the air, play a key role in climate systems. They influence the Earth’s radiative balance and interact with clouds, affecting precipitation and temperature. To address these scientific challenges, the BalNeO project was born.
BalNeO: A Global Network
BalNeO is an international initiative bringing together experts from the United States (NASA Langley Research Center, National Institute of Aerospace), Brazil, India, and France with the Molecular and Atmospheric Spectrometry Group (GSMA) of URCA. Its goal: to deploy a network of balloons capable of collecting atmospheric data from the ground to the stratosphere.
On June 1, 2024, the project took flight in Brazil from Bauru. This inaugural flight revealed a fascinating discovery: a layer of stratospheric aerosols between 18 and 22 km, carried by winds following the eruption of the Ruang volcano in April 2024. A few days later, a second flight from Reims revealed another anomaly in the transition layer between the troposphere and the stratosphere. These particles may have originated from forest fires or volcanic activity in the Northern Hemisphere.
An Ambition for the Climate
With its unique observations, BalNeO is positioned as an essential tool for climate research and satellite observation validation. By exploring the variability of aerosols in time and space, the project promises to better understand their impact on ecosystems and global climate. "This project could allow for the detection of artificial aerosol injections into the stratosphere," explains Dr. Jean-Paul Vernier, a researcher at NASA. These artificial injections have already been suggested to replicate the cooling effects of volcanoes and are also known as geoengineering.
For URCA, this collaboration with NASA and other international partners highlights its leading role in global environmental challenges. With BalNeO, the university is literally elevating itself in research, putting Reims on the map of major climate research.
The adventure is just beginning, and each BalNeO flight brings us closer to a deeper understanding of our atmosphere and its future.
Figure below (left): Concentration and temperature profiles of aerosols obtained during the first BalNeO flight from Bauru/Brazil on June 1, 2024. (Right): Another flight took place 3 days later from Reims/France.
