ARL Weekly News – April 16, 2021
| Recent Events |
NOAA, NIST complete installation of Lidar instrument on Commerce building to track weather and greenhouse gas emissions
NOAA and NIST installed a Doppler lidar instrument on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2021, for a research project studying urban greenhouse gas emissions. Image Credit: NOAA’s Scott Sandberg and NIST’s Tyler Boyle.
NOAA and NIST completed installation of a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the National Capital Region.
The D.C. installation contributes data to NIST’s Northeast Corridor Testbed Project, which measures anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants in urban areas along the U.S. East Coast. The Air Resources Laboratory also uses the DCNet data to help the intelligence community understand how potentially hazardous gases and/or particles could be dispersed into urban areas.
NOAA General Modeling Meeting and Fair
Alice Crawford presented a virtual poster titled the “HYSPLIT modeling community” at NOAA’s General Modeling Meeting and Fair on April 16th. The presentation highlighted the work of HYSPLIT team members in engaging with communities in four areas, volcanic emissions, radiological emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, and the transport of insects and pathogens.
ASH Balloon Progress & Student Accomplishments
Alice Crawford and Mark Cohen have been working with students Todd McKinney and Nicolas Perkalay at the University of Alabama, UAH, to compare the trajectories of high altitude balloons they have launched with HYSPLIT trajectories. The project is funded by the UAH space hardware club. The balloon trajectories can be viewed at https://www.ashballoon.info/missioncontrol.
Todd McKinney won first place at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Research Horizon competition with his undergraduate research tilted: Application of Super Pressure Balloons for Global High-Altitude Analysis. Mr. McKinney’s project sought to test the capabilities of long duration balloon flights. Story: https://www.uah.edu/news/items/twenty-five-projects-win-awards-at-seventh-annual-research-horizons-virtual-poster-
Todd McKinney gave a presentation on April 11th at the annual Stanford Research conference titled “Evaluation of HYSPLIT Trajectories using Circumnavigating Super Pressure Balloons.” Link: https://sura.sites.stanford.edu/stanford-research-conference