NSF Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Updates
Current Campaign Information
October 25, 2016
The Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Science would like to take the time to highlight Active Campaigns within our sections to help you become more aware of the science entailed by our funding here at NSF.
Installing a thermal properties soil sensor at VERTEX site campaign.
Credit: NCAR/EOL
The VERTEX campaign stands for VERTical Enhanced Mixing and is a continuing grant, based out of Lowes, Delaware and is ongoing through the end of this month. The study focuses on the wake effects of wind turbine on the lower atmospheric boundary layer. Following and using the field measurements, numerical modeling will be conducted. This research will provide an understanding if and how wind turbines can alter near-surface properties in any significant way. This understanding is important because it will either enhance wind energy deployment or slow it if such changes are considered too dramatic. You can find more information here, including an intensive Wikipedia blog with updates to the instruments/field work. You can find more information on the VERTEX website, including an intensive Wikipedia blog with updates to the instruments/field work Award # 1564565.
The Perdigao Campaign is part of a large European effort to improve the efficiency of wind energy production. The campaign will collect a reference data set at unprecedented spatial resolution, characterizing the mean and turbulent wind fields in a natural setting. Perdigao is based out of Portugal, but has a large US component that will bring additional instrumentation and a more basic science focus on microscale meteorology in complex terrain. Additional instrumentation from the US includes the NCAR flux (ISFS), profiling (ISS and radiosondes) and moisture (WV DIAL) systems as well as university-provided facilities such as the University of Oklahoma CLAMPS integrated mobile profiling system, the University of Colorado Tethered Lifting System, and the University of Notre Dame’s SODAR-RASS System. Colorado, Cornell, and Notre Dame will also be providing extra LIDAR systems for wind characterization. Perdigao officially starts in mid-December 2016 with an intensive operating period in later spring 2017. [More information on Perdigao] Award # 1565535,1565539,1565505,1565498,1565483.
The SNOWIE field Campaign (Seeded and Natural Orographic Winter clouds—the Idaho Experiment), will use the NSF-NCAR funded Wyoming King Air and the two Doppler on Wheels radars to gather information on the natural dynamical and microphysical processes by which precipitation forms and evolves within orographic winter storms. This is important due to the lack of concrete evidence that cloud seeding has on increasing precipitation, even though several states in the western US have conducted seeding operations over many years. The campaign will also help to determine the physical processes by which cloud seeding with silver iodide (AgI), either from ground generators or aircraft, impacts the amount and spatial distribution of snow falling across a river basin. This research will take place around the Idaho Power Company's seeding operations in the Payette Mountains and is set to begin Jan 1, 2017. Award # 15747101, 1546939, 1546963.
King Air Seeding Aircraft
Credit: Jeff French
Chungu Lu is the lead NSF PO for VERTEX and Nick Anderson is the lead PO on SNOWIE and Perdigao.