ARL Weekly News – November 5, 2021

Previous Events

COP26 Panel on Atmospheric Deposition

Ariel Stein moderated a WMO panel on Saturday, November 6 during COP26, on Atmospheric Deposition: the Invisible Threat – Impacts on Agriculture, Ecosystems and Oceans,  hosted within the IPCC-WMO-UKMO Pavilion. Wet and dry deposition of atmospheric pollutants can have detrimental impacts on sensitive ecosystems, rivers, lakes and oceans and can also reduce crop yields. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGdMPqAGGb4 

GMU Conference on Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling (in virtual format) 

Fantine Ngan attended the 25th GMU Conference on Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling (in virtual format) on November 2-4, 2021 and gave a presentation entitled “Data Archive of Tracer Experiments and Meteorology (DATEM) for Dispersion Model Evaluations.” DATEM was developed to provide access to experimental data, relevant reports, meteorological data, statistical analysis, and display software for controlled tracer experiments. Multiple short-range experiments and one more meteorological dataset have been added to the DATEM since the early 2000s. We conducted HYSPLIT simulations using the NARR and WRF datasets and their corresponding mixing configurations for nine controlled tracer experiments in North America. The dispersion results were evaluated against measured tracer concentrations and compared with each other on a common basis in the DATEM archive.

2021 Evapotranspiration Workshop

Praveena Krishnan attended the 2021 Evapotranspiration (ET) workshop during November 2-4, 2021. As part of the AmeriFlux Year of Water initiative, the workshop focused on 4 key topics: ET partitioning,  ET remote sensing, Integrating in-situ water flux measurements to advance ET science and ET modeling.

Volcanic Ash Working Group Meetings.

Dr. Alice Crawford attended the combined 16th Working Group on Meteorological Operations Group, International Airways Volcano Watch, WG-MOG/IAVW, Meeting and 8th Working Group- Meteorological Information and Service Development/ Volcanic Ash and Sulfur Dioxide work stream, WG-MISD/VASD Meeting. The meeting took place in virtual format on November 1,2,3,4,8. She attended as an advisor to Pat Murphy of the FAA who is a member  of the Meteorological Panel, METP.

Smart Balloon Project

Led by ARL intern Todd McKinney, students under the Smart Balloon Project at the University of Alabama in Huntsville successfully launched their improved payload. Flown on a standard weather balloon, the Smart Balloon payload is designed to vent gas and drop ballast to stabilize at predefined altitudes. Using the HYSPLIT Balloon Forecasting Tool, the team can essentially “drive” the balloon by changing altitudes to ride different flow patterns. On 11/5/2021, the team successfully stabilized at an altitude of 4 kilometers for 6 hours. This flight is proof that the Smart Balloon payload is a valuable tool to evaluate trajectories in both the troposphere and the stratosphere. The team is now currently improving upon the design of the payload and is hoping to fly multiple payloads for future studies.

On November 5, 2021, the team successfully stabilized at an altitude of 4 kilometers for 6 hours. This flight is proof that the Smart Balloon payload is a valuable tool to evaluate trajectories in both the troposphere and the stratosphere


The SMART Balloon Team preparing for launch.