Courtesy of Katie Beem

From: Katie Beem
Arica, Chile, October 29, 2008

Sea of Clouds

I took this photo during one of the research flights on the C-130. Almost all of our flights have taken off at 3:00 AM local time which means we get to see the Sun rise. That is the good part; the hard part is getting enough sleep.

In this photo we are flying above the clouds to sample gases and aerosols. Do you see the brown layer just above the clouds? That's air pollution. Often when we think of air pollution we think of the air down by the ground because that is where we see it. We see it emitted from cars and trucks and fires (just a few examples, I'm sure you can name other sources) but we don't think about it reaching high into the atmosphere.

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

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