ARM and EMSL are seeking collaborative research applications through the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program, which encourages and enables ambitious research projects integrating the expertise and capabilities of multiple user facilities.
Through the new FICUS call, researchers can apply to use EMSL instruments to collect samples of aerosols and volatile organic compounds on ARM TBS flights and then conduct analysis using advanced laboratory techniques at EMSL. For information about the EMSL instruments available for this call, read the ARM/EMSL FICUS FY2025 solicitation.
Researchers can also propose ARM TBS missions as part of the call.
Proposed research should investigate aerosol processes, aerosol-cloud interactions, or land-atmosphere processes over rural, urban, and coastal areas toward improved earth system models and mechanistic representations.
FICUS applicants may propose to analyze samples from past ARM TBS missions or from the three missions already planned for FY2024 at ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory in association with a study of organosulfates and organonitrates.
In addition, FICUS applicants may propose FY2025 TBS missions for the SGP, ARM’s new Bankhead National Forest (BNF) observatory in northwestern Alabama, or for a site on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The Kent Island site is part of the Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE) campaign.
Proposals requesting the EMSL instruments and sample analysis must be submitted to the ARM/EMSL FICUS FY2025 solicitation.
FICUS submissions will require a letter of intent to facilitate the planning of the peer-review process, ensure alignment of proposals to ARM and EMSL missions and capabilities, and assist users in building strong proposals. More information about letter-of-intent requirements is available on this FICUS guidance web page.
Letters of intent are due February 8, 2024. FICUS decisions and invitations for full proposals will be sent by March 4, 2024.