PMEL Programs and Plans
Accomplishments in FY 96 and Plans for FY 97
Figures (a) Climatic effects of tropospheric aerosol, and
(b) schematic diagram of the ACE-1 experiment, involving scientists
from 44 research institutions in 11 countries from the numerous measurement
platforms depicted above.
Atmospheric Chemistry Program
Accomplishments in FY 96
The PMEL-JISAO Atmospheric Chemistry
Program 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. The major focus of the Program during FY 96 was our
participation in the first Aerosol Characterization Experiment (
ACE-1) of
the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC). PMEL took
a lead role in this international IGAC aerosol experiment and coordinated
the shipboard studies. The experiment involved the efforts of over 100
research scientists from 11 countries and included coordinated
measurements from the NCAR C-130 aircraft, the NOAA research vessel
Discoverer, the Australia fisheries research vessel Southern Surveyor,
and land based stations at Cape Grim and Macquarie Island, Australia.
PMEL also participated in the Combined Sensor Program (CSP) which brought
together for the first time in a maritime environment a suite of in-situ
and remote sensing systems to characterize both air-sea interaction and
the radiative balance of the tropical atmosphere, including aerosols and
clouds.
Another activity of the PMEL-JISAO Atmospheric Chemistry Program 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 97
- Analyze and publish ACE-1 and CSP data.
- 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
and Bondville.
- Continue the development of a coupled aerosol chemical and optical model.
- Participate in ACE-2 aboard the R/V Vodyanitsky to:
1) document the chemical, physical, and radiative properties of aerosols
in the various air masses of the Northeast Atlantic and to investigate
the relationships
between these properties, and
2) determine the physical and chemical processes controlling the
formation, evolution, and fate of aerosols and how these processes affect the number size
distribution, the chemical composition, and the radiative and cloud
nucleating properties of the particles.
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