The three-week mission is designed to help scientists identify how air pollution contributes to climate changes in the Arctic.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said recent declines of sea ice are one indication the Arctic is undergoing significant environmental changes related to climate warming.

The project is called the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites, or ARCTAS.

The campaign begins in Fairbanks, Alaska, with aircraft serving as airborne laboratories, carrying instruments to measure air pollution gases and aerosols and solar radiation.

"The Arctic is a poster child of global change and we don't understand the processes that are driving that rapid change," said Daniel Jacob, an ARCTAS project scientist at Harvard University. "We need to understand it better and that's why we're going."

A second phase of the ARCTAS project takes place this summer from Cold Lake in Alberta, Canada, where flights will focus on measurements of emissions from forest fires.