Scientists can gain a much broader understanding of the chemistry, composition, and nature of the atmosphere if they use UV DIAL to aid other instruments rather than if they used each instrument separately. Using this map, scientists can then locate other atmospheric events like a plume from a fire and navigate to the plume, allowing other instruments to study it. Examples of atmospheric maps. The top image represents the outflow of aerosols associated with biomass burning in the western part of central Africa. The images were taken as the plane flew up the west central coast of Africa.
White areas indicate regions inaccessible to measurements because of a lack of data or clouds.
For example, the white area below 1 km in the top image resulted because stratus clouds prevented the laser beam from measuring below them. In one six-week mission every year or two, scientists use the UV DIAL system to study the troposphere over remote areas such as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and parts of Africa, Brazil, and Canada. Researchers have studied topics such as the effects of biomass burning on the atmosphere and how pollution is transported over long distances. Every three to five years scientists use the UV DIAL system in an airborne field experiment to study ozone in the stratosphere, particularly in the polar regions where the most chemical ozone depletion occurs. Scientists have also used this system to study the effects that the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 had on reducing ozone in the tropical stratosphere.