Mobile Facility Anchors Multi-site Aerosol Study in China

 
Published: 15 June 2008
The AMF installation in Shouxian includes the primary shelters and operations area, an adjacent instrument field, and several more instruments located on the roof of a nearby building.
The AMF installation in Shouxian includes the primary shelters and operations area, an adjacent instrument field, and several more instruments located on the roof of a nearby building.

In its most complex ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) deployment to date, ARM is coordinating operations and data collection at four different sites for the Aerosol Indirect Effects Study in China. Anchored by the AMF in Shouxian, the campaign also includes a supplemental facility at Lake Taihu and an ancillary facility that will operate in series at two sites to the north. Needless to say, the campaign logistics kept the AMF operations team on their toes, culminating with opening ceremonies last month at the Shouxian and Lake Taihu sites. Attended by several Chinese dignitaries, media, and science team representatives, the ceremonies marked the official start of data collection by the AMF in Shouxian on May 16.

In preparation for this deployment, the AMF operations team worked to reduce the facility’s footprint. They redesigned the Aerosol Observing System tower to lighten it and reduce install time. Similarly, the 10-meter meteorological tower was redesigned to accommodate instruments previously operated on tri-pods, and to match international height standards for ground radiation and wind measurements. Meanwhile, operations staff at the ARM Southern Great Plains site scrambled to calibrate extra instruments to support the supplementary and ancillary facilities. These instruments included a sunphotometer, ceilometer, microwave radiometer profiler, and narrow field of view radiometer. In addition, the AMF operations team coordinated the deployment of a guest instrument called the Sun and Aureole Measurement system. This instrument is operating with the AMF and ancillary facility to obtain data for a related study about the optical depth of thin clouds in East Asia.

The various study sites underwent a “staggered start” to operations, beginning in April with data collection at the ancillary facility located at Zhangye. Operated by collaborators from the Lanzhou University, this facility has a limited suite of instruments and will be moved to Xianghe in July. Following the start of AMF data collection at Shouxian on May 16, the supplementary facility at Lake Taihu came online a few days later. This facility is located at the permanent observatory maintained by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was enhanced with additional instruments and staff from the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and the University of Maryland. AMF operations staff assisted with the installation and calibration of several instruments at the Taihu site and provided training for local support staff. Data collection and data processing among the sites is being coordinated by the ARM data system team. Extensive measurements of cloud, aerosol, radiation, and precipitation at the sites will provide comparative measurements to study regional aerosol effects.