ARM Data at Heart of Newly Selected ASR Projects

DOE announces 24 projects chosen for funding

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $15.3 million in funding for 24 new projects for Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program science.

The new ASR projects will last up to three years and will support research to improve earth system models that predict weather and climate.

Selected projects will focus on observational, data analysis, and modeling studies that use observations supported by DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, to address:

• cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and thermodynamic processes from ARM’s 2021–2022 TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) near Houston, Texas
• cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes from ARM’s 2021–2023 Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign near Crested Butte, Colorado
• warm boundary-layer atmospheric processes
• Southeastern U.S. atmospheric processes through the early use of observations from ARM’s forthcoming Bankhead National Forest atmospheric observatory in Alabama.

“America’s leadership in the climate sciences dates back to the earliest general circulation models of the 1950s. DOE investments in the atmospheric sciences have been critical to our nation’s overall leadership in making accurate projections of climate change and impacts on society,” says Todd Anderson, DOE Acting Associate Director for BER. “These grants will ensure a strong atmospheric sciences research program and expand the robust scientific workforce of our country, which will lead to important new insights into the nature of earth system variability and change in support of the DOE mission.”

ASR Program Manager Shaima Nasiri says the research will help answer key science questions facing climate scientists.

“The goal of ASR research is to improve understanding of Earth’s key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes,” she says. “ASR funding ensures that we continue to develop a strong understanding of atmospheric processes in the earth system and the critical role they play as we face the challenges of a changing climate.”

Projects were selected through a competitive peer review under DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002850 (PDF), sponsored by BER within DOE’s Office of Science.

“We thank everyone who took the time and did the work to submit proposals,” says Nasiri, noting that scientists nationwide submitted a total of 73 proposals. “We also want to thank the 46 members of our review panels for their time and thoughtful dedication.”

Once fiscal year 2023 funding awards are finalized, principal investigators, project titles, abstracts, and team members will be added to the ASR projects web page.

ASR Funding Awardees and Project Titles

• Adeyemi Adebiyi, University of California, Merced: “Investigating the Overlooked Longwave Impacts of Mineral Dust on Warm Boundary-Layer Clouds”
• Sarah Brooks, Texas A&M University: “Influence of Aerosol Physicochemical Properties on Ice Nucleation in Convective Clouds”
• Gijs de Boer, University of Colorado: “Integrated Perspectives on Clouds, Precipitation, and the Surface Energy Budget in the Colorado Rocky Mountains using Observations from SAIL and SPLASH”
• Graham Feingold, NOAA: “Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Centered on MAGIC: Insights from Measurements and Lagrangian Large Eddy Simulation”
• Sean Freeman, University of Alabama in Huntsville: “Examining the Influences of Changing Aerosol and Thermodynamics on Southeastern Isolated Convective Clouds Using New Observations and Advanced Modeling”
• Allen Goldstein, University of California, Berkeley: “Vertically-Resolved Aerosol Composition Measurements for Improved Understanding of Aerosol Processes and Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Impacting Deep Convection During TRACER”
• Ethan Gutmann, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: “Changing Diurnal Energy Cycles Impact Net Water Vapor Fluxes in Mountain Watersheds”
• Yongjie Huang, University of Oklahoma: “Surface, Aerosol, and Meteorological Controls on Subtropical Coastal Metropolitan Convective Clouds: Observations and Simulations from TRACER”
• Timothy Juliano, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: “Examining the Influence of Heterogeneous Forest Canopy on Shallow Convection at the Third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) Site”
• John Mecikalski, University of Alabama in Huntsville: “Understanding Convective Cloud Evolution through Analysis of ARM AMF3 Surface, Radar, GOES-16 Satellite Observations, and Numerical Model Simulations”
• Russell Perkins, Colorado State University: “Comprehensive Characterization of the Seasonal Cycles of Ice Nucleating Particles for Studies of Precipitation Drivers in SAIL”
• Rebecca Sheesley, Baylor University: “Gas-Phase Precursors, Aerosol Composition and New Particle Formation During TRACER Using Spatially Resolved TRACERMAP Datasets; TRACER-MAP-NPF”
• William Smith, NASA Langley Research Center: “Atmospheric Regimes and Drivers of Cloud Variability and Aerosol-Cloud-Radiation Interactions Over the Coastal Northeast Pacific”
• Allison Steiner, University of Michigan: “Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Driven by Primary and Secondary Biological Aerosols During TRACER”
• Yang Tian, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: “Untangling Dynamical and Microphysical Controls of Convective Updraft Vertical Velocity: Insights From a Lagrangian Perspective”
• Giuseppe Torri, University of Hawaii: “Initiation of Deep Convection by Boundary-Layer Circulations During TRACER
• David Turner, NOAA: “Characterizing Boundary Layer Processes During Transition Periods with Observations and Modeling”
• Hannah Vagasky, Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc.: “Comparison of TRACER and GoAmazon Deep Convective Clouds with Respect to Urban Aerosol Load”
• Timothy Wagner, University of Wisconsin: “Characterizing Boundary Layer Processes During Transition Periods with Observations and Modeling”
• Jingfeng Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology: “A Theoretical and Observational Study of the Impact of Longwave Radiation on Snowmelt and Sublimation using SAIL/SPLASH Field Observations”
• Yang Wang, University of Miami: “Interactions Between the Boundary Layer New Particle Formation and Cloud Systems: Observations from ARMs Southeast U.S. Field Campaign”
• Lisa Welp, Purdue University: “Using Water Stable Isotopes to Quantify the Roles of Entrainment, Drizzle, and Aerosols in Determining Marine Stratocumulus Properties”
• Tianle Yuan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County: “Assessing the Dependence of Aerosol-Cloud Interactions on Low-Cloud Mesoscale Morphology with ARM Observations”
• Yue Zhang, Texas A&M University: “Pilot Study: Improving the Characterization of Cloud Formation Properties and Hygroscopicity of Aerosol Particles in the Southeastern U.S. Region”

ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories.