ARL Weekly News – August 19, 2022

Recent Events

The Flux Observations of Carbon from an Airborne Laboratory (FOCAL) Project Team Returns from Alaska’s North Slope

An ATDD team including Praveena Krishnan, Mark Heuer, Dominick Christensen, and Tom Wood traveled to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska during August 8 to 14, 2022 to start ground-based observations to support Flux Observations of Carbon from an Airborne Laboratory (FOCAL) campaign in 2023.  The FOCAL is designed to  measure emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor over the North Slope of Alaska. The team not only successfully finalized site locations but also installed two micrometeorological towers. Mark Hall and Chuck Lindsay of USCRN also supported the efforts during this period.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), FOCAL is a cooperative effort among the Anderson Group from Harvard University, Columbia University, Aurora Flight Sciences, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and NOAA/ARL/ATDD. It aims to bridge the scale gap between local studies of carbon emissions in the Arctic, such as those from flux towers, and large regional estimates of emissions from inversion modeling by utilizing airborne measurements.

The FOCAL site 1 after the installation. The inset shows a few pictures from the field with the ATDD team at work.


The ATDD team, left to right: Tom Wood, Praveena Krishnan, Dominick Christensen, and Mark Heuer after the successful installation of the FOCAL site 2. Inset shows locations of the sites.

Grant awarded to investigate Climate and Land Cover changes and their effect on Octagon Degus

Praveena Krishnan and a team of ORAU at ATDD were approved for funding to collaborate with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on a project entitled, Modeling the impact of climate and land cover changes on the social organization of Octodon degus.  The project was awarded by ORAU under its ODRD -Directed Research and Development Grants

UT Knoxville Chancellor’s Associates Program Welcomes Dr. LaToya Myles.

LaToya Myles was selected for the 2022 class of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor’s Associates Program, which brings together business and community leaders from the Knoxville area to learn more about the university, provide feedback to university administration on an array of topics, and serve as key advocates and supporters to enhance the university’s reputation in the local community and beyond. She will serve a three-year term with the program.

SORD-ID participates in IEC Safety Day Fair

SORD-ID meteorologist Jason Rich was contacted by the Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) about participating in their Safety Day Fair. With short notice, Jason collected various Idaho National Laboratory (INL) data reports and updated others to create a poster to display with a map of the mesonet. Margaret Simon, Walt Schalk, and Karly Curtis updated the NOAA SORD-ID: Who We Are Factsheet. Jason and Karly participated in the event on August 16th that showcased interesting facts about INL weather and distributed NOAA weather safety brochures. Wind speed and direction and pressure sensors, and a datalogger were displayed as examples of how SORD-ID monitors the weather.

SORD-ID represented at the Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) Safety Day Fair.

This event proved to be a good opportunity to meet our ‘customers’ and share the SORD-ID name and mission. Visitor comments included: “I appreciate the INL alerts I get from you guys”, “I check your website every day”, “I use your data for planning my projects”, and “I LOVE NOAA”. Based on the success of this event, we plan to participate in the larger INL Health and Safety Fair scheduled for late September.