PMEL Programs and Plans
Accomplishments in FY 97 and Plans for FY 98
Figures (a) Climatic effects of tropospheric aerosol, and
(b) locatons of PMEL aerosol field studies.
Atmospheric Chemistry Program
Accomplishments in FY 97
The Atmospheric Chemistry
Program at PMEL currently focuses on atmospheric aerosols and
climate forcing. The Aerosol Project
is designed to quantify the spatial and temporal distribution of natural and anthropogenic
aerosols in the marine atmosphere and to determine the physical, meteorological and biogeochemical processes
controlling their formation, evolution and properties. These data are needed in order (i) to aid the detection and attribution
of regional and global climate change, in particular, the estimation of the alteration that anthropogenic aerosols may be
providing to the greenhouse-gas induced warming patterns, and (ii) to improve the prediction of future climate changes for
various radiative forcing scenarios.
The measurements made by PMEL during the first Aerosol
Characterization Experiment (ACE-1) of the International Global
Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC) provided a means to
characterize aerosol properties and assess the processes
controlling the aerosol distribution in the lower marine
boundary layer of the minimally polluted background marine
atmosphere. The PMEL ACE-1 data analysis was completed
in FY 97 and will be part of the ACE-1 Special Section of the
Journal of Geophysical Research scheduled for publication in
the summer of 1998.
The second activity of the PMEL Aerosol Project during FY 97
was our participation in ACE-2. PMEL
took a lead role in this international IGAC aerosol experiment
and coordinated the shipboard studies. ACE-2 was designed to
study the radiative effects and controlling processes of
anthropogenic aerosols from Europe and desert dust from the
Africa as they are transported over the North Atlantic Ocean.
The experiment involved over 250 research scientists from
Europe and the United States and included 60 coordinated
aircraft missions with 6 aircraft, one ship, and ground stations
on Tenerife, Portugal and Madeira.
Another activity of the PMEL Aerosol Project is the chemical
sampling and analysis of daily samples from a ground-based
aerosol monitoring network. This network has been established
in conjunction with NOAA/Climate Monitoring and
Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) to determine means,
variability, and possible trends of key optical, chemical and
microphysical properties for a number of important aerosol
types.
Atmospheric Chemistry Program
Plans for FY 98
- Continue long-term aerosol monitoring with ion chromatographic and gravimetric analysis of daily submicron and weekly supermicron aerosol samples from the NOAA Aerosol Monitoring Network stations at Sable Island, Bondville, and Barrow.
- Continue the development of a coupled aerosol chemical
and optical model.
- Complete data analysis and manuscripts describing region
of high aerosol backscatter in the central equatorial North
Pacific.
- Complete manuscript describing aerosol chemical
composition (what fraction is not sulfate) for marine,
perturbed marine, clean continental, and polluted
continental air masses.
- Analyze data from ACE-2 and attend ACE-2 data
workshops.
- Begin organizing ACE-Asia.
(Planning meetings in
Nagoya, Japan, November 1997; Seattle, August 1998;
white paper to be published in summer 1998.)
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