Aerosol properties and processes in remote marine environment
EMSL Project ID
49377
Abstract
With their extensive coverage, low clouds greatly impact global climate. Presently, low clouds are poorly represented in global climate models (GCMs), and the response of low clouds to changes in atmospheric aerosols remains a major source of uncertainty in climate simulations. The Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign, recently approved by DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, will take place in the Azores from May 2017 to April 2018 (http://www.arm.gov/campaigns/aaf2017aceena). The overarching scientific objective of ACE-ENA is to understand key processes that drive the properties and interactions of aerosol and clouds under a variety of representative meteorological and cloud conditions. Specifically it includes understanding the contributions of different sources, including sea spray aerosol, entrainment of free tropospheric aerosol, and new particle formation to marine boundary layer (MBL) aerosol, the variations of the contributions with season and meteorological conditions, and the removal of MBL cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) by droplet coalescence for representative cloud regimes. During ACE-ENA, simultaneous characterizations of trace gases, aerosol, cloud, and drizzle fields will be carried out onboard the ARM Aerial Facility Gulfstream-1 (G-1) aircraft near the ARM ENA site on the Graciosa Island in the Azores. In addition, particle samples will be collected onboard the G-1 and at the surface ENA site. Here, we propose comprehensive analyses of the particle samples using a variety of techniques at EMSL to characterize particle mixing state, morphology, functional group, and chemical composition on molecular-level. These analyses, combined with in-situ measurements, will allow quantitative understanding of the processes that drive the aerosol properties in this climatically important region.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2016-10-01
End Date
2017-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members