Brookhaven scientists take off for southeastern Pacific cli...( UPTON NY - During October and Novemb...)
UPTON, NY - During October and November 2008, some 150 scientists from 40 institutions in eight nations - including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory - will take part in an international field experiment designed to make observations of critical components of the climate system of the southeastern Pacific. Because elements of this system are poorly understood and poorly represented in global climate models, collecting real-time, complementary data from a variety of areas will go a long way toward improving scientists' ability to use these models for making accurate predictions about Earth's climate.
A total of five aircraft - including DOE's G-1 Gulfstream research aircraft, operated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with instruments developed at both PNNL and Brookhaven - and two research ships will sample the lower atmosphere and upper ocean during the experiment. Two sampling sites operated by research groups from Chile, Sweden, and the United States with conduct complementary sampling studies in the coastal region of Chile south of Santiago.
"We are motivated to participate in this study because the vast area of clouds in this region will provide an ideal laboratory for testing theories that have been developed at Brookhaven Lab regarding how precipitation forms in clouds and how aerosols affect cloud optical and microphysical properties," said Brookhaven chemist Peter Daum, chief DOE scientist for the study.
The southeastern Pacific region is dominated by strong coastal upwelling, bringing cold, dense seawater from the deep ocean closer to the surface and resulting in extensive cold sea surface temperatures. It is also home to the largest subtropical deck of low-lying stratocumulus clouds on Earth.
"These and other chemical and physical factors shape the regional climate and affect the global weather in ways that are poorly understood," said C. Roberto Mech
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| Contact: Karen McNulty Walsh kmcnulty@bnl.gov 631-344-8350 DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory Source:Eurekalert |
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