Gijs de Boer (top) with the Data Hawk, and Matt Shupe (bottom, foreground) are in Oliktok Point, AK.
|
Atmospheric Research in Alaska this Month
October 14, 2016
CIRES scientists Gijs de Boer and Matthew Shupe of ESRL's Physical Sciences Laboratory are in Oliktok Point, Alaska from 10-22 October to conduct research on the lower Arctic atmosphere. de Boer will work with a team of University of Colorado Boulder scientists and engineers at Oliktok Point from 10-22 October to deploy the DataHawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The purpose of these flights is to obtain measurements of thermodynamic properties of the lower atmosphere, including information on the exchange of energy between the Earth’s surface and the overlying air during the initial formation of sea ice over the Arctic Ocean. Data collected during these flights will aid in understanding Arctic climate and processes critical to sea ice formation.
In addition to the DataHawk activities, Shupe and NCAR scientist Carl Schmitt will deploy instruments on a tethered balloon system operated by the US Department of Energy’s ARM program. These sensors will provide information on the structure of the atmosphere, clouds and precipitation, and the aerosol particles that go into cloud formation.