New England Winter No Match for Science on the Cape

 
Published: 5 April 2013
Snow sticking to the sides of these playful statues in Hyannis perfectly shows the effects of blowing snow in early February.

Winter snowfall in the Boston area is not uncommon, and in February they got it in spades—just in time for the second phase of research flights for the Two-Column Aerosol Project at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Despite a few “snow days” the ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) team completed a very full and successful schedule of research flights. They also accommodated several outreach tours, including a visit by Stephanie Coxe from the office of U.S. Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.) and several National Park Service colleagues from Cape Cod National Seashore.

Supplementing the airborne measurements, the Mobile Aerosol Observing System (MAOS) resumed operations at the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) site at the Seashore from mid-January through mid-March. Both platforms weathered the battery of February blizzards with barely a hitch, thanks to adept bobbing and weaving by AMF operations personnel in close communications with park hosts.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Snowblower!

As luck would have it, the “Blizzicane” touched down in New England just as the AAF team was heading into its first full week of research flights in early February. Conditions at the Barnstable Airport—“field base of operations” for the AAF team—were exacerbated by high winds, blowing snow, and large drifts, not to mention a lengthy power outage from falling power poles throughout the area. The team hunkered down, patiently waiting for power to be restored and airport runways to clear for takeoff.

The ARM Aerial Facility team and participating scientists gather for a photo outside the hangar in Hyannis.

Once operations resumed, the team made up for lost time and then some, eventually completing 14 research flights—4 more than the previous summer! TCAP principal investigator Larry Berg from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory noted that the winter phase of TCAP flights included both clear-air and cloudy missions and “a fair range of aerosol loading.”

“It is a testament to the quality of the entire AMF and AAF teams, both in the field and at home, that we have been able to complete the mission so successfully with so many flights,” said Berg in a congratulatory note to both teams.

In addition to his science duties with the AAF team, Berg took time out to give a seminar at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, arranged with assistance from the science liaison at the Seashore’s Atlantic Research Center. Several media were invited to attend, resulting in an article in the Cape Cod Times and a 28-minute interview aired on WCAI, the Cape’s National Public Radio station based in Woods Hole.

Safe and Sound

Meanwhile, on the outer Cape, the storm systems carried high winds that hammered the coast. Fortunately, weather forecasts did their job, and the AMF operations team in Truro battened down the hatches in preparation for each storm. When the first—and worst—storm passed through, the only damage was a shredded tent enclosure and some downed perimeter fencing. As soon as a new power pole was installed, the site was back in business collecting data. Another storm the very next weekend brought more of the same, but the only pause in operations was the balloon launches, due to the heavy winds.

As if it weren’t cold enough, ARM colleagues from LANL, BNL, and the National Insitute for Amazonian Research in Brazil pause for a popsicle break in front of the scanning cloud radar.

“The safety of site personnel is always our first priority,” said Amon Haruta, AMF project coordinator from Los Alamos National Laboratory. “We suspended site access for two full days, following the lead of our hosts, who closed the park to visitors.”

Taking advantage of their return to the Cape to operate the MAOS, operations personnel from LANL paired up with instrument scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratory to turn on, repair, and calibrate the systems after their long hiatus from last summer. They also provided training on the system to visiting Brazilian colleagues preparing for the upcoming GOAMAZON field campaign.

The AMF will continue to operate at the Seashore until the end of June, when it will be taken offline and readied for the trip to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

For more detailed captions and additional photos from TCAP, visit the image collection in Flickr.