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The warm conveyor belt (WCB), the major cloud‐forming airstream of midlatitude cyclones, is the primary mechanism for rapidly transporting air pollution from one continent to another. However, relatively little has been written on WCB transport across the North Pacific Ocean. To address this important intercontinental transport route, this study describes the life cycle of a WCB associated with the export of a highly polluted air mass from Asia to North America. This event was sampled using in situ measurements from an aircraft platform flying above the North American West Coast during the 2002 Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT 2K2) experiment on 5 May. Satellite imagery, trajectory ensembles, in situ measurements, and animations are used to illustrate the formation of the WCB near eastern Asia, its entrainment of polluted air masses, its transport path across the Pacific, and its decay …