ARL Weekly News – July 27, 2018

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Winston Luke traveled to the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Moss Point, Mississippi from July 23-27. The NERR is home to one of ARL’s three sites in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s Atmospheric Monitoring Network. This maintenance trip focused on the inspection, calibration, and as-needed repair of the trace gas and aerosol monitors (CO, O3, SO2, Black Carbon, Speciated Mercury), meteorological sensors (wind speed and direction, temperature, pressure, relative humidity, rainfall, and incoming solar radiation), and precipitation collectors.

ATDD
A paper titled “Observations and numerical simulation of the effects of the 21 August North American total solar eclipse on surface and atmospheric boundary layer evolution” co-authored by Michael Buban, Temple Lee, Edward Dumas, C. Bruce Baker, and Mark Heuer has been accepted for publication in Boundary-Layer Meteorology. This paper presents observations from a small micrometeorological tower and a small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) of the surface and lower atmosphere taken during the eclipse over Ten Mile, TN, where the eclipse totality lasted 2 min. 38 s. Additionally, results from a Large Eddy Simulation is presented and compared to the observations. The very high vertical resolution observations from the sUAS and the simulation allowed for improved understanding of how the surface and lower atmosphere react to rapid changes in incoming solar radiation. For more information contact: Michael.Buban@noaa.gov

LaToya Myles participated in the GOLD Institute, a National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop on Geosciences Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity, in Colorado Springs, CO, the week of 23 July. She serves as co-PI on the Hearts of GOLD grant that established these workshops, along with Grady Dixon (Fort Hays State University) who serves as the PI and fellow co-PIs Carolyn Brinkworth (NCAR), Eric Kaufman (Virginia Tech), Kathy Quardokus Fisher (Florida International), and Denise Simmons (U. Florida). Over 20 mid-career and senior scientists participated in the workshop, which addressed issues of hiring, mentoring, promoting, and championing geoscientists, regardless of gender, race, nationality, etc. The PI team is currently drafting the first journal article based on results from this workshop and the prior one held in summer 2017.