Leveraging the AMF3 Campaign to Target Land–Atmosphere Interactions and Study Regional Heterogeneity in the Southeast U.S.

Authors

Shawn P. Serbin¹*, Scott E. Giangrande¹, Allison Steiner², Tamanna Subba¹, Chongai Kuang¹

Institutions

¹Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY; ²Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, MI

Abstract

The upcoming redeployment of the U.S. DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) third mobile facility (AMF3) to the southeastern United States, with siting focused on northern Alabama, will provide unprecedented opportunities to study aerosol, cloud, and land–atmosphere interactions (LAI) in a region with strong local surface–atmosphere coupling and feedbacks. A major focus of the campaign will be detailed studies into the roles of surface processes (e.g., momentum, heat, carbon dioxide, biogenic volatile organic compound, and water vapor fluxes) and land–surface heterogeneity play on boundary layer dynamics and larger, regional-scale weather patterns, as well as critical two-way interactions between atmospheric conditions and vegetation function. To facilitate this research, the AMF3 Site Science Team (SST) has been engaged with ARM, AMF3 operations partners, and the larger scientific community to guide the siting, configuration, and instrumentation required to address these core research areas. The expected surface and LAI observation network for the AMF3 deployment will include a heavily instrumented main-site tower facility located in a representative forested region to observe important vertical and ecosystem-scale processes that influence local weather, as well as spatially distributed supplemental sites to facilitate regional-scale surface–atmosphere studies. This planned surface observation network will be linked with multiscale, multidomain (e.g., aerosol, cloud processes) spatial datasets and modeling activities to explore methods for upscaling surface measurements to the larger region and study connections with atmospheric processes. The SST is also engaged in predeployment activities to develop a baseline understanding of the southeast U.S. region and identify optimal sampling strategies for surface–aerosol studies. The location of the AMF3 deployment will also offer important partner agency and university collaborations to enhance the LAI focus, including proximity to other surface measurement networks (e.g., NEON, AmeriFlux, and IMPROVE).