This is the first blog from AMSG Co-Chairs Gannet Hallar and Tim Onasch.
AMSG initiates new focus and outreach
Hello, and welcome to the AMSG blog. As the AMSG co-chairs, we are looking for new ways to expand the group’s focus and impact. We will send updates after each meeting to keep the community informed of our progress and to solicit ideas on topics that should be addressed.
The AMSG is an ARM constituent group that reports directly to ARM Director Jim Mather. ARM tasks the AMSG with enhancing coordination of ARM’s aerosol and trace gas measurements with the needs of the DOE Atmospheric System Research (ASR) community and other aerosol science communities to advance aerosol measurement science and ensure measurement quality.
The AMSG was chartered in 2015, following a period of informal engagement between ARM and various aerosol science communities, and the charter was updated in 2022. The AMSG conducts virtual quarterly meetings, participates in outreach during the annual Joint ARM User Facility/ASR Principal Investigators Meeting, provides feedback to the ARM Director and input into the ARM Aerosol Measurement Plan, and conducts strategic planning workshops. The most recent AMSG workshop was in 2019.
The AMSG is composed of atmospheric scientists, including ASR’s Aerosol Processes Working Group leads, and ARM personnel. You can learn about the current members on the AMSG Member Bios page.
A specific focus of the AMSG is to enhance the scientific impacts of ARM aerosol measurements. We will accomplish this goal through three main actions:
- Increase outreach and coordination, specifically to and with external and international communities and networks.
- Assist ARM in developing a new Aerosol Measurement Plan (the last ARM Aerosol Measurement Plan was published in 2018).
- Organize another strategic planning workshop to map out future AMSG activities.
New Subgroups and Potential Opportunities for Coordination
We formed four subgroups in our January 2023 meeting—Measurement Techniques, Measurement Quality, Measurement Modeling, and Measurement Sampling—with the intent of keeping a longer-term focus on these important aspects of aerosol measurement science.
During our recent meeting, ARM personnel presented updates on intensive operational period sampling strategy integration within ARM, Aerosol Observing System development, the upcoming ARM Mobile Facility deployment to the Southeastern United States, and North Slope of Alaska-based collaborations between DOE and NOAA.
We learned about the proposed Brookhaven National Laboratory-based Center for Aerosol Measurement Science (CAMS), a dedicated facility for data quality assurance in atmospheric aerosol measurements that is based on the World Calibration Centre for Aerosol Physics. CAMS has been proposed to provide the basis for calibration of ARM in situ aerosol instruments. The long-term vision for CAMS is to extend this service to the broader aerosol measurement community.
Finally, Connor Flynn and Art Sedlacek presented a proposed Absorption Measurement Intercomparison and Calibration Experiment (AMICE) study for advancing understanding of ARM’s absorbing aerosol measurements.
We have invited Georgia Tech professor Sally Ng, the principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT), to our April 25 meeting to discuss coordination of measurements and data sharing between ARM and ASCENT. We look forward to an exciting and fruitful meeting.
Engage With Us
As members of various atmospheric science communities ourselves, we are always looking for scientific input, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. The DOE ARM infrastructure is a fantastic resource that seeks continual guidance from interested scientific communities, and the AMSG represents one way for aerosol scientists to interact and help build a successful future.
Please feel free to reach out to us or any member of the AMSG with your input and consider volunteering your time on the AMSG in the future.
Thanks,
Gannet and Tim, on behalf of the AMSG