Breakout Summary Report
ARM/ASR User and PI Meeting
13 - 17 March 2017
Preparing for MOSAiC
16 March 2017
10:45 AM - 12:45 PM
35
Matthew Shupe
16 March 2017
10:45 AM - 12:45 PM
35
Matthew Shupe
Breakout Description
The session included a general introduction and overview of MOSAiC by Shupe to help inform a broader ARM/ASR community on the activity and provide a means for others to engage in the project. Following the main presentation, more targeted slides outlined in detail the atmospheric measurements coming from ARM as well as those that will be provided by other countries/agencies, and other coupled system measurements that will be part of the project.Main Discussion
The presentation component was followed by an open discussion about key topics of interest:• Aerosol sampling strategy. There is a great deal of interest in the aerosol and chemistry community in general for the measurements that will be made during MOSAiC. The local source from the ship’s exhaust is a concern but in some cases is also viewed as an opportunity. Various approaches were discussed to identify and mitigate the adverse impacts of local pollution.
• Black carbon: The concept of a black carbon deposition laboratory was rolled out and found to be of great interest by those in attendance. In short, the local source of black carbon from ship exhaust will be deposited at the surface in decreasing concentrations as one moves further away from the ship. This will allow for the ability to measure the concentrations of black carbon in the surface snow/ice and to understand how these relate to variations in surface albedo. This will provide important insight into the potential effects of increased shipping through the Arctic.
• Operations on the ice: Some of the priority measurements that should be made on the ice were discussed, including surface radiation and precipitation measurements. These will face significant complications if attempted from the ship itself.
• In situ cloud measurements: It was noted that in situ cloud measurements near the surface, or from a tethered balloon, would be very interesting and useful. At present there is no definitive plan for tethered balloon (although a few groups are potentially interested) nor plans for near-surface microphysical measurements. One audience member may submit a relevant proposal to make such measurements (to a non-DOE agency).
• Radar frequencies. Some thought that scanning W/Ka combination would be better than scanning X/Ka. When adding in the vertical, it seemed that perhaps a better approach is Ka and W band for vertical and X/Ka for scanning. This topic will need to be discussed in more detail by the relevant people after obtaining a little more information on the relative sensitivities and other trade-offs.
• Impact on models: It was noted that the DOE model ACME would be running a regionally refined grid over the Arctic (meaning higher resolution) and that the MOSAiC data will be a great source for evaluation data. It would be important to reach out to that community to better understand their needs.
• Model studies: Since MOSAiC will be in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, there will be a limited ability to develop a robust forcing data set for limited area models. It was recognized that the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) output, specifically high-resolution output from operational models, might be very useful for this purpose. Such data sets will also include tendencies, which will provide interesting possibilities for forcing limited area models.
At the conclusion of the session, Shupe emphasized the open nature of MOSAiC and encouraged those that were interested to engage via potential options, including IOP/Guest instrument proposals to ARM, eventual proposals for science to ASR or DOE modeling programs, or proposals to other agencies. Some specific activities were identified that will be pursued via these avenues, including ice nucleation measurements, black carbon measurements, some trace gases, and spectral shortwave radiation.
Decisions
The general discussions led to some key decisions about activities that should be conducted during MOSAiC to support better interpretation of the measurements. These include:• Getting a good measurement of the ship exhaust and analyzing a sample of the fuel in order to have a clear understanding of the local pollution composition and signatures in the various relevant measurements.
• Adding a basic weather station near the stack height to understand the conditions at emission and to have an idea of the direction the emission will be going.
• Reach out to the ARM Data Archive folks, and specifically the External Data Center, regarding the potential need/desire to archive external datastreams that are of very high relevance to ARM- and DOE-supported researchers.
Future Plans
Everyone is very much looking forward to the future field deployment and using the data! Lots of community excitement.Action Items
1) A key action item for the near future is to have more detailed discussions with the AMF2 team regarding the specific instruments and instrument configurations that are needed to implement the project, including some level of prioritization. This is particularly important for the aerosol equipment and radars. Kim Nitschke will put together a table of the AMF2/AOS instruments in their current configurations and this will be discussed in depth with Shupe, who will engage other targeted contributors from the general community for input.2) There are a couple of ARM instruments that are desired but may not be part of the current AMF2 instrument list (SP2, trace gas, etc.). Based on the result of Action #1 above, these specific instrument situations will be addressed and may be proposed as guest instruments.