ARM Mobile Facility One: GoAmazon Deployment

 

Authors

Amon Haruta — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kim L. Nitschke — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Heath H Powers — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Antonio Ocimar Manzi — Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia
Roberta de Souza — National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA)
Bruno Takeshi Tanaka — INPA

Category

ARM Infrastructure

Description

In an effort to better characterize our atmosphere and understand its role in global climate, the DOE ARM program operates a number of measurement facilities around the globe, with the “mobile facilities” being used to quickly and effectively deploy instruments to under-sampled regions around the world. The ARM Mobile Facility One (AMF1) is currently deployed in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest as a part of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon) campaign. With a focus on understanding the role of different types of aerosol particles on cloud formation, the site near Manacapuru, Brazil was chosen because of its location in the vast Amazon rainforest region and its proximity downwind from the metropolis of Manaus, Brazil. During the rainy season, the frequent precipitation in the region removes most of the particles from the air leaving the atmosphere with a low concentration of particles primarily derived from natural processes. During dry periods, the increased burning of the forest as well as the pollution plume from Manuas pass over the site and produce higher particle concentrations derived mainly from anthropogenic sources. The site is equipped with baseline instruments for collecting data in four broad areas of interest: Micrometerological instruments accurately describe characteristics of the atmosphere such as temperature, pressure and relative humidity. Radiometric instruments help measure the energy balance of radiation entering and leaving the surface. Aerosol and trace gas instruments describe particles and gases in the atmosphere in terms of type, concentration, size, and chemistry. Cloud Microphysical instruments study cloud particles, movement, and processes such as precipitation and convection. In order to capitalize on the unique location and instrumentation at the AMF1 site, a number of synergistic measurements take place there. The ARM program hosted two major intensive operations periods (IOPs) at the AMF1 site. This consisted of collaborations with a number of institutions who provided instruments and researchers that collected unique data that helped address a number of related research questions. Each IOP lasted eight weeks with one IOP taking place during the rainy season and the other during the dry season. ARM has also deployed additional facilities at this site in order to produce an unprecedented data set in this region. The Mobile Aerosol Observation System (MAOS) is colocated at this site to provide intensive studies of a