GTE's National Commitment

In 1984, the National Academy of Sciences recommended initiation of a Global Tropospheric Chemistry Program (GTCP) in recognition of the central role of tropospheric chemistry in global change. Envisioned as the US national component of an international research effort, the GTCP entails the systematic study, supported by numerical modeling, of (1) biological sources of atmospheric chemicals; (2) global distributions and long-range transport of chemical species; and (3) reactions in the troposphere that lead to the conversion, redistribution, and removal of atmospheric chemicals. The GTCP is currently part of a comprehensive international research effort coordinated through the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Programme (IGAC), which is a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP). NASA's contribution to the GTCP is the Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE)