GML Staff
Eric Hintsa
TTEA
Mailing Address:
NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory
325 Broadway R/GML
Boulder CO 80305-3328
Phone: 720-514-9637
Email: eric.j.hintsa@noaa.gov
I am the lead scientist for the UAS Chromatograph for Atmospheric Trace Species (UCATS), a lightweight and compact gas chromatograph instrument with additional capabilities for ozone, water vapor, and laser detection of trace gases. This instrument was designed for operation on uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) but has also flown on other platforms, such as the NSF/NCAR GV, the NASA DC-8, and the NASA ER-2 aircraft. I work on airborne field projects to study atmospheric composition, dynamics (transport), and climate processes. Besides field work, I am involved with instrument design, building, and maintenance; data analysis, archiving data, and publication of results; and coordination and collaboration with the Water Vapor and Ozone Division within the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) as well as other colleagues in GML and the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory.
My academic training was in the field of chemistry, and I received my Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1989. I began work in atmospheric science as a postdoctoral researcher and scientist with Dr. James Anderson, working on water vapor, ozone, and stratospheric transport, primarily on a series of missions on the NASA ER-2 aircraft in the 1990’s. After working as a research scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and as a Program Director for Atmospheric Chemistry at the National Science Foundation, I came to NOAA in 2009.
Since then, I have participated in the HIPPO and ATom projects to study the distribution, chemistry, and transport of atmospheric trace gases over the Pacific ocean from the NSF GV aircraft and the Pacific and Atlantic with the NASA DC-8, respectively. From 2010-2014, I operated the UCATS instrument on the NASA/NOAA Global Hawk UAS from California and Guam during GloPac and the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). Highlights of ATTREX include the use of trace gases to determine the origin and transport of air in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL), and observations of ozone over the tropical Pacific. In 2019-2022, we rebuilt the UCATS instrument to measure a larger suite of gases, including chlorine- and bromine-containing compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halon-1211, and flew it on the ER-2 aircraft over North America as part of the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) Mission. I am currently analyzing data from the mission to determine the chlorine and bromine budgets of the midlatitude lower stratosphere. In 2023, we participated in the NOAA Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects (SABRE) project in the Arctic winter, in order to better understand stratospheric aerosols and possible effects from natural and anthropogenic perturbations to aerosol distributions. Long-lived trace gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O) can help show whether air has been influenced by the Polar Vortex, and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is used to determine age of air; these are among the gases measured by UCATS. Analysis of SABRE data and preparation for future SABRE activities is ongoing, with plans for a deployment to the tropics in 2025.