Vertical profile of atmospheric particle composition via tethered balloon system
EMSL Project ID
51104
Abstract
The vertical distribution of aerosol strongly influences the radiative forcing of the aerosols. However, observational data is limited. Both satellite observation and ground-based measurements are not able to provide well-resolved vertical profiles of aerosol. Aircraft observation from large-scale field campaigns can provide useful observation but have limited temporal coverage. Deployment of an unmanned aerial system such as Atmospheric Radiation Measurement's (ARM) tethered balloon system (TBS) can provide important information about vertical profile of aerosol with longer temporal coverage. We propose an experimental study to investigate the vertical profile of atmospheric aerosol collected via TBS. Aerosol samples were collected from ARM's deployment of TBS at two DOE ARM sites, the Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory, Oklahoma and the third ARM mobile facility (AMF) at Oliktok Point, Alaska. Multi-modal micro-spectroscopy of single particle and molecular-level characterization of atmospheric aerosol collected at different altitude using the novel capabilities at EMSL will provide their physical, chemical, optical, and microphysical properties at an unprecedented level. Results from this study will be crucial to be incorporated into a climate model for improved predictions of the spatial distribution of atmospheric aerosols.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2019-11-26
End Date
2021-03-31
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Related Publications
Mei, F.; McMeeking, G.; Pekour, M.; Gao, R.-S.; Kulkarni, G.; China, S.; Telg, H.; Dexheimer, D.; Tomlinson, J.; Schmid, B. Performance Assessment of Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS). Sensors 2020, 20, 6294.