Project Title: A New Carbon Flux Super Site: Innovative Methods of atmosphere-terrestrial carbon exchange Measurements and Modeling (Funded by DOE; Period: 10/01/07-09/30/09).
The goal of this project is to harness a series of new, cutting-edge technologies and methods to measure CO2 fluxes and produce new, improved, and scientifically more accurate estimates of atmosphere-terrestrial ecosystem exchange processes. These observations will be integrated into the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), which will then be applied to study multiscale exchange processes. As part of this project, the Duke HOP will collect 90 hours of data during two field campaigns (in 2008 and 2009), each consisting of 7-10 flight-days in two transects based on the different land covers (i.e., marsh, rural, urban, and coastal) found through the Savannah River Ecological Site and its vicinity. Five, one-hour flights a day (from morning to late afternoon) will be performed for each flight day.
Project Title: The Bio-hydro-atmosphere interactions of Energy, Aerosols, Carbon, H2O, Organics and Nitrogen (BEACHON) Project (in development, not yet funded).
BEACHON is led by The Institute for Integrative and Multidisciplinary Earth Studies (TIIMES) at NCAR (see TIIMES Strategic Plan published in October 2007). As discussed in details during the planning workshop that was held in November 2007 at NCAR, BEACHON aims to advance scientific knowledge by addressing four major questions: (1) How do whole ecosystem exchanges regulate and link the terrestrial biogeochemical and water cycles, and how will they respond to changes in chemical, physical and biological variables? (2) How does biosphere-atmosphere exchange impact the intensity, frequency, and duration of precipitation, and how does changing precipitation drive gas and particle fluxes? (3) How do atmospheric oxidant and reactive carbon and nitrogen interactions influence biogeochemical cycling in a water-limited ecosystem? And (4) to what degree do land-use change and eco-disturbance affect biosphere-atmosphere exchange?
The HOP has been identified as a novel and useful platform that will play a key role in BEACHON, and under the leadership of Dr. Alex Gunther (at TTIMES), we have started the design of an “Atmospheric Chemistry Package” (ACP) that will be mounted on the HOP for BEACHON. This ACP includes sensors and instruments to measure ozone and NO/NO2/NOy concentrations, total number of particles larger than 10 nm, size distribution of particles larger than 100 nm, VOC, direct and diffuse PAR and to measure the fluxes of ozone, NO/NO2/NOy, VOC (using REA and a PTR-MS), and particles. The PTR-MS will be mounted in a pod under the belly of the HOP, using the same quick-release attachment device and power and data connectors used for the LIDAR currently being mounted on it. All other components will be mounted on a rack in the front cabin, with an inlet that will go straight through the front frame of the HOP to sample undisturbed air next to the AIMMS-20 and instead of the Licor, which will be moved to the side of the attachment device.