ARL Weekly News – March 3, 2023

Recent Events

Utah Summer Ozone Study Planning.

ARL and ESRL Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) scientists held preliminary discussions to collaborate on the Utah Summer Ozone Study (USOS) in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOAA CSL will conduct a study of summertime ozone in the Wasatch Front region of northern Utah in the summer of 2024. This region (population of 2.5 million and growing), exhibits regular exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. Measurements of the spatial distribution and speciation of major ozone precursors (NOx and VOCs), together with additional chemical measurements and meteorological data, will enable better understanding of the factors that lead to high ozone. CSL will deploy trace gas and aerosol detectors on a mobile laboratory (i.e., instrumented vehicle) and at fixed ground sites in the region, and hope to partner with ARL to measure ozone, ozone precursors, and greenhouse gases from the NOAA Twin Otter aircraft, which will also be equipped with CSL’s side-scanning wind lidar system. This collaboration is subject to the approval and allotment of ~ 150 hours of flight time on the Twin Otter by the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). The request for aircraft flight time will be submitted by March 6. More information can be found at: https://csl.noaa.gov/groups/csl7/measurements/2024usos/

Tennessee Science bowl

Rick Saylor represented ATDD at the kickoff dinner for the 2023 Tennessee Science Bowl (TSB) at the Hilton at Knoxville’s airport on February 24th. TSB brings together high school teams from all across Tennessee to compete in math and science for a chance to travel to Washington, D.C., in April to compete in the National Science Bowl. ATDD is a Silver Sponsor of the Tennessee Science Bowl and has been a supporter of the competition for 15 years.

Urban Meteorology Coordination Meeting with Howard University

Ariel Stein, Phil Stratton, and Winston Luke met with student Myah Rather and Professors Ricardo Sakai and Sen Chiao (Howard University) to discuss the revitalization and expansion of ARL’s DCNet urban meteorological measurement network in Washington, DC. ARL staff toured a rooftop measurement platform atop the Interdisciplinary Research Building (IRB) on the Howard University campus. Instrumentation deployed on the IRB includes a HALO Photonics Doppler wind LiDAR; Vaisala ceilometer; Cimel multi-spectral sun photometer (NASA AERONET); pyranometer; microwave radiometer; and in-situ WS, WD, and temperature. The IRB is situated a few blocks from the existing DCNet site atop the nearby Physics Department building. Discussions centered on partnering with Howard University to include their remote measurements within the DCNet program, and to add measurements of urban heat stress, precipitation intensity, and perhaps aerosols and greenhouse gases on the university campus.