The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced funding of $19 million for 31 projects through DOE’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program.
The university-based projects will expand the fundamental understanding of Earth systems and improve Earth system models. They include a range of atmospheric science topics, including interactions between clouds and aerosols, atmospheric processes in the high northern and southern latitudes, the development of new atmospheric data products, and maximizing the scientific impact of ARM’s upcoming TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) campaign.
“Atmospheric processes leading to cloud formation and precipitation are notoriously complex and difficult to model accurately,” says Chris Fall, Director of the DOE’s Office of Science. “These studies, which combine observation and modeling, will be important steps toward more precise and predictive models on both regional and global scales.”
ASR recommended the 31 proposals of 87 full proposals submitted to DOE’s Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002198. The ASR FOA was sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) within the DOE’s Office of Science.
“We want to thank all the researchers who did the long, thoughtful work to submit proposals; we are happy to be able to support so many excellent proposals this year,” says ASR Program Manager Shaima Nasiri. “We also want to thank the 58 members of the scientific community who reviewed these proposals. Each contributed a significant amount of time and expertise throughout the peer-review process.”
Once Fiscal Year 2020 funding awards are finalized, principal investigators, project titles, abstracts, and team members will be added to the ASR projects web page.
Read the DOE Office of Science announcement.
Following are the 31 principal investigators and their recommended projects:
- Christopher Cappa, University of California – Davis – Characterization of carbonaceous aerosols during TRACER-CAT
- Rajan Chakrabarty, Washington University – St. Louis – Establishing robust correction schemes for improved and reliable ARM-AOS aerosol optical data products
- Christine Chiu, Colorado State University – Constraining microphysical processes of warm rain formation using advanced spectral separations, an ensemble retrieval framework and machine learning techniques
- Gijs de Boer, University of Colorado – Measurements of TRACER pre-convective conditions and mesoscale circulations using small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS)
- Paul DeMott, Colorado State University – Understanding the natural sources of aerosols and their impacts on cloud formation and climate across hemispheres
- Minghui Diao, San Jose State University – Advancing the Understanding of Cloud Microphysical Processes and Aerosol Indirect Effects in High-Latitude Mixed-Phase Clouds by Linking ARM Measurements with Climate Model Simulations
- Graham Feingold, NOAA/Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research – Evaluating Biases in Aerosol-Cloud Interaction Metrics using ARM Data and Models
- Bart Geerts, University of Wyoming – Numerical Simulations of Cold Air Outbreaks Using a Multi-Scale Modeling Framework
- Jerry Harrington, Pennsylvania State University – Characterizing the Small-Scale Dynamical, Ice Microphysical, and Residual Aerosol Properties of Mid-Latitude Cold Clouds: A Pilot Study
- Petra Klein, University of Oklahoma – Coastal Urban Boundary-layer Interactions with Convection (CUBIC)
- Daniel Knopf, Stony Brook University – Application of aerosol-ice nucleating particle closure to establish the leading parameters governing ice crystal number concentration under commonly observed mixed-phase cloud conditions
- Sonia Lasher-Trapp, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign – Aerosol Effects upon Convective Cold Pools: Establishing General Trends
- Claudio Mazzoleni, Michigan Technological University – LAACI – Light Absorbing Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Experiment
- Gregory McFarquhar, University of Oklahoma – Using MARCUS, MICRE, and COMBLE data to improve understanding and modeling of cloud, aerosol, and boundary layer processes at high-latitudes
- Ola Persson, University of Colorado – Synoptic and Mesoscale Modulation of Dynamic and Thermodynamic Impacts on Central Arctic Sea Ice During MOSAiC
- Markus Petters, North Carolina State University – Size-resolved Eddy-Covariance Particle Flux Measurement during the TRACER Campaign
- Anita Rapp, Texas A&M University – Targeted Mobile Measurements to Isolate the Impacts of Aerosols and Meteorology on Deep Convection
- Lynn Russell, University of California – San Diego – Baselining the Indirect Effect by Improving Quantification of Sea Spray and Marine Sources at Ascension Island
- Rebecca Sheesley, Baylor University – TRACER-MAP: Mapping Aerosol Processes across Houston during convective cell events
- Matthew Shupe, University of Colorado – Cloud-atmosphere impacts on the central Arctic surface energy budget
- Israel Silber, Pennsylvania State University – Early Stages in the Lifecycle of Polar liquid-bearing Clouds
- James Smith, University of California – Irvine – Ultrafine aerosol particle formation and impacts in Houston during TRACER
- Kara Sulia, State University of New York – Albany – Classification of Cloud Particle Imagery and Thermodynamics (COCPIT): A New Databasing Tool for the Characterization of Cloud Particle Images Captured During DOE Field Campaigns
- Joel Thornton, University of Washington – A combined experimental and hierarchical modeling approach for quantifying the impact of clouds on biogenic organic aerosol
- Susan van den Heever, Colorado State University – Examining the Impacts of Microphysical-Dynamical Feedbacks on Convective Clouds in Different Aerosol Environments Using Enhanced Observational and Modeling Strategies
- Marcus van Lier-Walqui, Columbia University – Polarimetric radar & lightning analysis and high-resolution simulations to support TRACER science goals
- Jian Wang, Washington University – St. Louis – Aerosol hygroscopic growth, mixing state, and cloud condensation nuclei activity during Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER)
- Yang Wang, Missouri University of Science and Technology – Understanding the Vertical Transport and Removal of Aerosols during Deep Convective Events
- Christopher Williams, University of Colorado – Advanced Precipitation and Boundary Layer Data Products Derived from ARM Radar Wind Profilers
- Robert Wood, University of Washington – Investigating the role of dynamical processes in driving aerosol-cloud interactions in boundary layers over ocean and land
- Paquita Zuidema, University of Miami – Synthesis of aerosol-cloud interactions over the southeast Atlantic throughout the seasonal cycle
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research program as part of the Atmospheric System Research program.