| NSF Org: |
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | November 5, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | November 5, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1917851 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Nicholas Anderson
nanderso@nsf.gov (703)292-4715 AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | November 15, 2019 |
| End Date: | October 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $230,517.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $230,517.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
216 MONTANA HALL BOZEMAN MT US 59717 (406)994-2381 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
ECE Dept., Cobleigh Hall Room 61 Bozeman MT US 59717-3780 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Physical & Dynamic Meteorology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Weather forecasts, especially for short-term events, critically depend on the knowledge of the lower atmosphere temperature and moisture structure. Currently, the main method to obtain those measurement is through infrequent and sparely-situated weather balloons or high-powered laser-based systems that are impractical for long-term use. This project will build upon a series of awards that have resulted in a set of lower-power, laser-based instruments that can run unattended and retrieve water vapor in the lower atmosphere. This award will expand upon current techniques to allow for a system that can also retrieve temperature in the lower atmosphere at low-power, a capability that does not currently exist. If the work proves successful, it could have a significant impact on weather forecasting, especially for severe weather and precipitation. The project also includes a training component for the next generation of remote sensing scientists.
The research team will develop and demonstrate the ability of the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique to profile temperature in the lower atmosphere. The DIAL technique has been successfully applied to water vapor, but additional work is required to demonstrate the capacity to retrieve temperature. The advantage that a DIAL-based instrument has over other current techniques to retrieve temperature profiles is the time and spatial resolution of the measurements and the potential for unattended, low-power operations. The long-term goal of this line of research and development is to produce networkable, low-cost, ground-based remote sensing instruments that can close the observational gaps in lower tropospheric thermodynamic profiling needed by the weather and climate communities. The main steps in the project will be to: 1) choose the appropriate oxygen absorption feature to work with, 2) build the new system using existing diode-laser-based (DLB) architecture, 3) develop the final retrieval algorithm and associated data acquisition software, 4) perform initial field testing of the instrument.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Weather impacts the daily lives of all citizens. The ability to accurately predict weather such as severe thunderstorms or heavy snowfall with improved accuracy and longer lead times can positively impact society through protection of both lives and infrastructure. Furthermore, as our climate system is changing and impacting weather phenomena, the ability to continuously monitor the basic state of the atmosphere over large areas can help understand these changes and their impacts and can help lead to mitigation strategies for some of the most severe impacts of these changes. The research project just completed is part of a longer-term research effort that is helping to develop cost-effective tools needed by the weather forecasting and atmospheric science communities.
Researchers at Montana State University have been working on developing remote sensing tools for continuously monitoring the state of the lower atmosphere. Initial work has l ed to the development of remote sensing instruments for measuring the humidity in the lower atmosphere. More recent work has resulted in the ability to quantitatively map out the aerosol distribution in the lower atmosphere. The project just completed adds to the ability of the remote sensing instruments by demonstrating continuously monitoring the boundary layer structure and the temperature field of the lower atmosphere.
The ability to continuously measure atmospheric properties including humidity, temperature, and boundary layer structure (thermodynamic properties) in the lower atmosphere with cost-effective networkable active remote sensing instruments has the potential to provide the necessary observational capability to improve our understanding of many atmospheric processes, improve numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecasting skills, study weather phenomena, and study regional climate variability. Furthermore, the development of low-cost networkable remote sensing instruments has the potential to positively impact society by allowing for a sufficiently large network of instruments for adequate coverage of an area the size of the continental United States, allowing improved national weather service forecasts and public safety resulting from increased forecast skill and longer warning and forecast lead times.
Over the course of the project, a prototype instrument was developed and a long-term validation experiment was completed to demonstrate the temperature profiling capability. The remote sensing instrument utilizes a diode-laser-based transmitter operating at 770 nm and is capable of monitoring the absorption of the light due to the oxygen in the atmosphere and the scatter due to the aerosol in the atmosphere. Based on the absorption of the light due to the oxygen in the atmosphere, a temperature measurement as a function of range can be determined. Furthermore, using the measured scatter from the aerosol, the boundary layer can be inferred. Temperature profiling capabilities based on the MPD instrument architecture has been successfully demonstrated. The MPD demonstrated 2 C accuracy with a 20 minute averaging time and a 300 m range resolution with a maximum range of approximately 3.0 - 3.5 km depending on atmospheric conditions over a six months of continuous operation.
Last Modified: 01/08/2024
Modified by: Kevin Repasky
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