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Mei, Fan

Publications and source records attributed to Mei, Fan.

At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

The Impact of Variable Land-Atmosphere Coupling on Convective Cloud Populations Observed During the 2016 HI-SCALE Field Campaign

We use a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model with a nested domain configuration (297 and 120 km wide) and an interactive land surface parameterization to simulate the complex population of shallow clouds observed on August 30, 2016 during the Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols, and Land-Ecosystems (HI-SCALE) campaign conducted in north-central Oklahoma. Shallow convective clouds first formed over southeast Oklahoma and then spread towards the northwest into southern Kansas. By the early afternoon, the relatively uniform shallow cloud field became more complex in which some regions became nearly cloud free and in other regions larger shallow clouds developed with some transitioning to deeper, precipitating convection. We show that the model reproduces the observed heterogeneity in the cloud populations only when realistic variations in soil moisture are used to initialize the model. While more variable soil moisture and to a lesser extend cool lake temperatures drive the initial spatial heterogeneity in the cloud populations, precipitation-driven cold pools become an important factor after 1300 CST. When smoother soil moisture variations are used in the model, more uniform shallow cloud populations are predicted with far fewer clouds that transition to deeper, precipitating convection that produce cold pools. An algorithm that tracks thousands of individual cumulus show that the more realistic soil moisture distributions produces clouds that are larger and have a longer lifetime. The results suggest that shallow and deep convection parameterizations used by mesoscale models need to account for the effects of variable land-atmosphere interactions and cold pools.

Fast, Jerome D.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) Field Campaign Report

With their extensive coverage, low clouds greatly impact global climate. Presently, low clouds are poorly represented in global climate models (GCMs), and the response of low clouds to changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols remains the major source of uncertainty in climate simulations. The poor representations of low clouds in GCMs are in part due to inadequate observations of their microphysical and macrophysical structures, radiative effects, and the associated aerosol distribution and budget in regions where the aerosol impact is the greatest. The Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) is a region of persistent but diverse subtropical marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds, whose albedo and precipitation are highly susceptible to perturbations in aerosol properties. Boundary-layer aerosol in the ENA region is influenced by a variety of sources, leading to strong variations in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration and aerosol optical properties. A permanent ENA site was established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility on Graciosa Island in the Azores, providing invaluable information on MBL aerosol and low clouds. At the same time, the vertical structures and horizontal variabilities of aerosol, trace gases, cloud, drizzle, and atmospheric thermodynamics are critically needed for understanding and quantifying the budget of MBL aerosol, the radiative properties, precipitation efficiency, and lifecycle of MBL clouds, and the cloud response to aerosol perturbations. Much of this data can be obtained only through aircraft-based measurements. In addition, the interconnected aerosol and cloud processes are best investigated by a study involving simultaneous in situ aerosol, cloud, and thermodynamics measurements. Furthermore, in situ measurements are also necessary for validating and improving ground-based retrieval algorithms at the ENA site. The Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) project was motivated by the need for comprehensive in situ characterizations of boundary-layer structure, and associated vertical distributions and horizontal variabilities of low clouds and aerosol over the Azores. The ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) Gulfstream-1 (G-1) aircraft was deployed during two intensive measurement periods (IOPs). The first deployment took place from June 21 to July 20, 2017, and the second one took place from January 15 to February 18, 2018. Flights were carried out in the Azores, near the ARM ENA site on Graciosa Island. Deployments during both seasons allow for examination of key aerosol and cloud processes under a variety of representative meteorological and cloud conditions. The science themes for the deployments include: (1) Budget of MBL CCN and its seasonal variation; (2) Effects of aerosol on cloud and precipitation; (3) Cloud microphysical and macrophysical structures, and entrainment mixing; (4) Advancing retrievals of turbulence, cloud, and drizzle; and (5) Model evaluation and processes studies.

Eastern North Atlantic, Graciosa Island, aerosols,↗
DOE OSTI2019

Overview of the HI-SCALE Field Campaign: A New Perspective on Shallow Convective Clouds

Shallow convective clouds are common, occurring over many areas of the world, and are an important component in the atmospheric radiation budget. In addition to synoptic and mesoscale meteorological conditions, land-atmosphere interactions and aerosol-radiation-cloud interactions can influence the formation of shallow clouds and their properties. However, these processes exhibit large spatial and temporal variability and occur at the sub-grid scale for all climate and operational forecast models and must be represented by parameterizations. Uncertainties in shallow cloud parameterization predictions arise from many sources, including insufficient coincident data needed to adequately represent the coupling of cloud macrophysical and microphysical properties with inhomogeneity in the surface layer, boundary layer, and aerosol properties. Predictions in the transition of shallow to deep convection and the onset of precipitation are also affected by errors in simulated shallow clouds. Coincident data is a key factor needed to achieve a more complete understanding of the lifecycle of shallow convective clouds and to develop improved model parameterizations. To address these issues, the Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols and Land Ecosystems (HI-SCALE) campaign was conducted near the Atmospheric Radiation and Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site in north-central Oklahoma during 2016. We describe the scientific objectives of HI-SCALE as well as the experimental approach, the overall weather conditions during the campaign, and preliminary findings from the measurements. Finally, we discuss the remaining scientific gaps in our understanding of shallow clouds that can be addressed by analysis and modeling studies that use HI-SCALE data including: the effects of heterogeneous land-use, vegetation, and soil moisture conditions on boundary layer mixing and consequently cloud formation; factors that contribute to the transition of shallow to deep convection; the role of cloud population on

Fast, Jerome D.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Cloud droplet activation of secondary organic aerosol is mainly controlled by molecular weight, not water solubility

Aerosol particles strongly influence global climate by modifying the properties of clouds. An accurate assessment of the aerosol impact on climate requires knowledge of the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), a subset of aerosol particles that can activate and form cloud droplets in the atmosphere. Atmospheric particles typically consist of a myriad of organic species, which frequently dominate the particle composition. As a result, CCN concentration is often a strong function of the hygroscopicity of organics in the particles. Earlier studies showed organic hygroscopicity increases nearly linearly with oxidation level. Such an increase in hygroscopicity is conventionally attributed to higher water solubility for more oxidized organics. By systematically varying the water content of activating droplets, we show that for the majority of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), essentially all organics are dissolved at the point of droplet activation. Therefore, for droplet activation, the organic hygroscopicity is not limited by solubility but is dictated mainly by the molecular weight of organic species. Instead of increased water solubility as previously thought, the increase in the organic hygroscopicity with oxidation level is largely because (1) SOAs formed from smaller precursor molecules tend to be more oxidized and have lower average molecular weight and (2) during oxidation, fragmentation reactions reduce average organic molecule weight, leading to increased hygroscopicity. A simple model of organic hygroscopicity based on molecular weight, oxidation level, and volatility is developed, and it successfully reproduces the variation in SOA hygroscopicity with oxidation level observed in the laboratory and field studies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Aerosol Vertical Profiling at Oliktok Point (AVPOP) Field Campaign Report

Aerosols are an important component of the atmospheric system through their various impacts on climate. Notably, the largest uncertainty of the energy budget (i.e., radiative forcing estimate) is the aerosol indirect effect. Aerosol-induced microphysical modifications influence cloud lifetime and albedo. However, constraining aerosol-cloud impacts in climate models, specifically in regions such as the Arctic, remains a significant challenge due to limited observations. The efficacy of an aerosol to impact the arctic energy budget largely depends on its concentration, composition, and source. While ground-based measurements will provide a consistent, high-resolution time series of aerosol observations, the arctic atmosphere can be stratified, and thus what is observed on the ground may not be representative of the aerosol aloft. A key gap in arctic aerosol research is routine vertical profiling of abundance and source characterization. Previous work outside of the Arctic has focused on using launched or tethered balloon systems (LBS and TBS, respectively) to measure vertical profiles of aerosol size distributions and has demonstrated the utility of such observations (e.g., Hofmann et al. 1989; Hofmann 1993; Iwasaka et al. 2003; Kim et al. 2003; Tobo et al. 2007). More specifically, particle spectrometers have also been deployed via TBS systems (de Boer et al. 2018; Greenberg et al. 2009; Maletto et al. 2003; Renard et al. 2016; Wehner et al. 2007; Siebert et al. 2004) affording information on aerosol layer locations and evolution by means of multiple profiles. Filter samples for post-processing of aerosol composition and ice nucleation properties have also been conducted in mid-latitudes (Creamean et al. 2018). However, while these studies present novel measurements of aerosol vertical profiling via balloon systems, few exist to date in the Arctic. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility TBS is composed of a variety of winches, balloons, and instrumentation that flies within ARM’s Restricted Airspace (R-2204) at the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) at Oliktok Point, Alaska (Figure 1). The system payload comprises instruments that can simultaneously collect in situ data on horizontal winds, ice microphysics, turbulence, thermodynamic state, aerosols, and the cloud-top environment (https://www.arm.gov/capabilities/instruments/tbs). Recent campaigns at AMF3 have involved the use of the ARM helikite, which is a balloon-kite hybrid that uses lighter-than-air principles to obtain its initial lift and a kite to achieve stability and dynamic lift. Additional information on the specifications of the helikite TBS can be found in the ARM TBS handbook (Dexheimer 2018).

Oliktok Point, North Slope of Alaska,, tethered ba↗
DOE OSTI2018

POPEYE_CPC

The data file include the aerosol concentration and sampling condition observed from iMet sensor.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

aafsmps (b1)

The scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) is a particle size spectrometer that measures the aerosol number size distribution by sizing particles based on their electrical mobility diameter using a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) and by counting particles using a condensation particle counter (CPC). It measures aerosol concentration and aerosol particle size distribution in the Aitken mode range.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

IWG_CACTI

The Interagency Working Group for Airborne Data and Telemetry Systems (IWGADTS) is developing a suite of tools to promote standardization of instrument interface, data format and data processing. ARM Arial Facility uses the IWGADTS ("IWG1") format and the detailed information can be found at: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/iwgadts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

AIMMS 20 Hz ACE-ENA

The AIMMS-20 probe is manufactured by Aventech Research Inc. (http://www.aventech.com) and measures platform position, velocity, attitude, and ambient temperature, static pressure, and the differential pressures from a 5-port hemispheric gust probe, and combines all these measured data into a calculation of the ambient winds. A detailed description of the AIMMS-20 specifications is available on (http://aventech.com/documents/PMS%20CANISTER/PMS%20Canister%20Technical%20Specifications.pdf). The data provided here are originally communicated as raw measurements over the CAN bus to the ODMS data module and stored in flight in binary .rXX files. These files are combined in post processing using the Aventech program asmbl.exe in to .raw files, one for each flight. The .raw files are subsequently processed using the Aventech program ekf553_oemv.exe, which regenerates the wind estimates, in this case at an output rate of 20 Hz.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Radiometer for ACE-ENA

The broadband SPN total, zenith1, and zenith2 downwelling SW irradiances were corrected for tilt up to 10 degrees of tilt (per Long et al., 2010). For tilt greater than 10 degrees these values are set to ""bad"". No tilt correction has been applied to the MFR spectral data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Cloud droplet activation of secondary organic aerosol is mainly controlled by molecular weight, not water solubility

Aerosol particles strongly influence global climate by modifying the properties of clouds. An accurate assessment of the aerosol impact on climate requires knowledge of the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), a subset of aerosol particles that can activate and form cloud droplets in the atmosphere. Atmospheric particles typically consist of a myriad of organic species, which frequently dominate the particle composition. As a result, CCN concentration is often a strong function of the hygroscopicity of organics in the particles. Earlier studies showed organic hygroscopicity increases nearly linearly with oxidation level. Such increase of hygroscopicity is conventionally attributed to higher water solubility for more oxidized organics. By systematically varying the water content of activating droplets, we show that for the majority of secondary organic aerosols (SOA), essentially all organics are dissolved at the point of droplet activation. Therefore, the organic hygroscopicity is not limited by solubility, but is dictated mainly by the molecular weight of organic species. Instead of increased water solubility as previously thought, the increase of the organic hygroscopicity with oxidation level is largely because (1) SOA formed from smaller precursor molecules tend to be more oxidized and have lower average molecular weight and (2) during oxidation, fragmentation reactions reduce average organic molecule weight, leading to increased hygroscopicity. A simple model of organic hygroscopicity based on molecular weight, oxidation level, and volatility is developed, and it successfully reproduces the variation of SOA hygroscopicity with oxidation level observed in the laboratory and field studies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗