Marjorie C (Photo: Pasha Hawaii)
Derek Coffman, Hanna Best, and Lucia Upchurch, with their Modular Sampling Platform (Photo: Derek Coffman)
PMEL's Atmospheric Chemistry Group (ACG) and U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are working together to deploy the first of an autonomous system to observe atmospheric, cloud, and aerosol properties on a commercial ship called BEACONS (Boundary Layer Exploration of Aerosols and Clouds ON Ships).
The 6-month pilot project is scheduled to begin as early as May. ACG will take measurements of aerosol properties relevant to radiative forcing including the particle number size distribution, total particle number concentration, and aerosol light scattering and absorption coefficients. Measurements will be collected by the Modular Sampling Platform (MSP, pictured) developed by ACG at PMEL. The MSP will be stationed atop the flybridge forward of the stack on the commercial ship "Marjorie C" which transits regularly between San Diego and Hawaii. The ACG and PNNL measurements will be used to develop an unattended system for aerosol and cloud data collection to improve model prediction.
Placing the MSP on a commercial ship that routinely transits between two points (San Diego and Honolulu) allows for the collection of a lot of data which provides a better representation of aerosol properties than one cruise can. This increases the accuracy of the properties that are used as inputs or validation of chemical transport and climate models.
ACG's Derek Coffman, Hanna Best, and Lucia Upchurch have been working to assemble the newly designed Modular Sampling Platform for aerosol observations over the past year. The unattended nature of this platform will allow ACG to use other ships in the future, including NOAA, UNOLS, and other commercial vessels. The newly developed MSP is smaller, weighs less, and requires less deck space than the traditional 20' lab containers used in the past. The project's goal is to provide more opportunities for aerosol measurements at sea, lowering measurement costs, and expand the regions and reach of boundary layer aerosol observations.