COLLABORATIONS FOR OCEANIC RADIATION MEASUREMENT PROGRAM
R. Michael Reynolds Tue, Sep 12, 2000
The U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement
(ARM) program has operated climate monitoring facilities on two
islands in the tropical western Pacific Ocean: Manus island, Paupa
New Guinea and Nauru island, Republic of Nauru, for several years.
The ARM Ocean Project (AOP), centered at Brookhaven National
Laboratory, was designed to supplement the island measurements and
provide open ocean radiation measurements, uncontaminated by island
effects.
Two complementary efforts are essential to a long-term open ocean
radiation observation program: first is the building of
collaborations, friendships really, between the many agencies
involved in ocean observations, and second is the design and
preparation of instrument packages that have the necessary accuracy
and reliability. The ARM Ocean Project has concentrated on both of
these goals and has developed both buoy and ship instrumentation
systems.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates
an array of moored buoys in tropical waters of the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, the Tropical Oceans and Atmospheres (TAO) buoys. A
collaboration between DOE/ARM and NOAA has resulted in the
development of a specially designed shortwave radiometer which is
deployed on 32 TAO buoys in the tropical Pacific and 12 in the
Atlantic. Over the next years, the Japan Marine Science and
Technology Center (JAMSTEC) will deploy TRITON buoys in the tropical
western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, and the ARM Ocean Project has
established a collaboration to ensure these radiation data will
seamlessly complement the TAO coverage. Moored buoys have the
advantage of making continuous measurements from a fixed point, but
only the most simple measurements are possible. Buoy motion
increases uncertainty in the measurements and the instruments are
left unattended for six months to a year typically.
Ships provide an excellent platform for nearly uncontaminated open
ocean measurements and the AOP has developed a true >=ocean platform<=
that will serve the needs of ARM and the world climate community.
The Shipboard Oceanographic and Atmospheric Radiation (SOAR) project
is designed to provide the needed autonomous radiation packages on
critical ships of opportunity. The SOAR instrument suite will
provide continuous measurements of total longwave and shortwave
broadband irradiances, shortwave spectral diffuse and direct-normal
irradiances in six 10-nm bands (415, 500, 610, 680, 870, and 940 nm),
aerosol optical thicknesses in all spectral bands, hemispheric sky
images, direct estimates of cloud fraction, meteorological quantities
such as winds, temperature, and humidity, and sea-surface skin
temperature. By the end of 2000 three ships will be instrumented
with SOAR systems: the R/V MIRAI of JAMSTEC, and the R/V KA'IMIMOANA
and the R/V RON BROWN of NOAA.
In the past five years the BNL-AOP program has developed a plethora
of collaborations toward the goal of open ocean measurements and the
list below shows only the most salient ones. As the DOE/ARM Ocean
Project continues to grow and develop stature as the leader in ocean
radiation measurement, its coverage, though concentrated on the
tropical western Pacific Ocean, will extend to all the world's
oceans. While some collaborations are not directly involved with the
DOE/ARM measurement, they provide supporting funds to the development
program and, importantly, extend the DOE/ARM Ocean Project reputation
to an international scale.
AOP COLLABORATIONS:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA:
Ä TAO buoy radiation array.
Ä Research ships of opportunity; RONALD BROWN and KA'IMIMOANA.
Ä Scientific Computer System (SCS) data acquisition software.
Ä Experiment participation with various scientific groups.
Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Japan:
Ä TRITON buoy radiation array.
Ä Research ship R/V MMIRAI
Ä Island SOAR installation on Palau Island in the TWP.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA:
Ä Sensor Intercomparison and Merger for Biological Interdisciplinary
Ocean Studies (SIMBIOS) program operates PRP packages on several
research cruises.
Univ. of Miami, Rosential School of Marine Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences:
Ä Three Portable Radiation Package (PRP) systems operating world wide.
Several cross-Pacific cruises.
Ä Permanent PRP system on the "Royal Caribbean" cruise ship.
Southampton Oceanographic Center, UK:
Ä Development of the Infrared Sea Surface Temperature Autonomous
Radiometer (ISAR) for underway autonomous SST measurement.
University of Washington:
Ä Icebreaker cruises to Antarctica planned for 11/2000.
PEER-REVIEWED PAPERS:
Ä R. Michael Reynolds and Mark A. Miller and Mary Jane Bartholomew,
2000, Design, Operation, and Calibration of a Shipboard Fast-Rotating
Shadowband Radiometer, Journal of Oceanic and Atmospheric Technology,
in press.
Ä Kennith Voss, Ellsworth Welton, Patricia Quinn, Robert Frouin, mark
Miller, and R. Michael Reynolds, 2000, Aerosol Optical Measurements
during the Aerosols99 Experiment, Journal of Geophysical Research, in
press.
KEY WEB SITES:
http://www.arm.gov
http://armocean.bnl.gov
http://www.jamstec.go.jp
http://www.noaa.gov
Attached photo: MiraiSoarTeam.jpg
Caption: The SOAR team disembarks from the R/V MIRAI in Yoksuka Japan
after a successful installation test cruise. From left are Masaki
Hanyu and Kunio Yoneyama of Japan Marine Science and Technology
Center, R. Michael Reynolds of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and
David Benigni and Dennis Shields of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
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