A RECONFIGURED ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE PROGRAM

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A RECONFIGURED ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE PROGRAM
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WHAT ARE WE DOING ?

• Reconfiguring the atmospheric chemistry and
  environmental meteorology programs into an
  aerosol program that addresses radiative forcing
  in the atmosphere
• Give guidance to BER and Office of Science

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WHY DO THIS ?

• DOE Participates in the CCSP
• Composed of CCSI and USGCRP
• Strategic Plan now available for the CCSP
• Subcommittee on Global Change Research
• OMB rep wanted status of aerosol research
• Aerosol research growing in importance
• Concerned that uncertainties associated with
  aerosols not been addressed adequately
• DOE Volunteered to Look into the Problem
• Reconfigured ASP in the result

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WHY THE NAME RECONFIGURED?

• If the program were identified as a new program,
  it would be zeroed out of the budget by OMB
• Truthfully, the reconfigured program does address
  many subjects that were supported in the previous
  ASP.
• Done to preserve funding level.

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A RECONGIGURED ASP

• Research that emphasizes radiative forcing from
  natural and anthropogenic aerosols
• Results used to provide input into climate models
  with a goal of reducing uncertainty in model
  output

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WHAT ARE AEROSOLS ?

• A System of colloidal particles dispersed in a
  gas
• Natural Occurring volcanic particles and sea
  salt
• Anthropogenic soot and smoke

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WHY ARE AEROSOLS IMPORTANT ?

• Aerosol forcing appears to be of the same
  magnitude as the effect of Greenhouse Gases, but
  much more uncertain
• Forcing is Direct and Indirect
• Direct effects better understood
• Indirect effects largely anecdotal

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CHARGE TO THE PANEL

• Provide Guidance to Office of Science and BER
  Considering
• Major scientific uncertainties
• Limited budget
• Current research
• Facilities capabilities available

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APPROACH TO THE CHARGE

• Briefed on current programs
• Other agencies
• DOE Headquarters
• National Labs
• Discussion Sessions
• Identification of Gaps/Uncertainties
• Needs of modelers
• Interaction with ARM
• How to proceed

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WHAT ARE THE GAPS ?

• Two Areas of Great Uncertainty Were Highlighted
• Indirect effects of aerosols on clouds
• Role of black carbon and organic aerosols on
  climate

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INDIRECT EFFECTS

• Occurs when aerosol particles or gas phase
  precursors modify clouds changing hydrometeor
  size distributions cloud cover, lifetime,
  albedo and precipitation
• Dominates current uncertainty in climate forcing
• Fundamental processes and responses are not
  understood

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DIRECT EFFECTS

• Organic aerosols a significant component of
  global aerosol burden
• Particle sources, history of their abundance,
  evolution of chemical physical properties,
  interactions with gas phase reservoirs, impact on
  cloud processes, optical properties all not
  known well

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DIRECT EFFECTS CONTINUED

• Organics may be hydrophobic or hydrophilic
• Enhance or retard water uptake
• May absorb visible light could contribute to
  global warming
• Create positive and negative forcing

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COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM

• Laboratory Studies
• Field Studies
• Modeling/Theory
• Instrument Development

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LABORATORY STUDIES

• Identification through mechanistic and kinetics
  studies of intermediate diagnostics to provide
  rigorous tests of models
• Identification of interactions between natural
  and anthropogenic aerosols and precursors
• Elucidation of the nature of species measured as
  black carbon by current methods

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FIELD STUDIES

• Three classes of field experiments needed
• Long-term systematic measurements linked with ARM
  sites
• Systematic ground based measurements
• Highly intensive atmospheric process-oriented
  campaigns

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Table I. Timeline of field programs planned by
NASA, NOAA, and/or DOE for the 2004-2007
period. Several of these planned field programs
may be appropriate for participation by the
reconfigured ASP.
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MODELING/THEORY

• Models to resolve cloud fields with microphysical
  and chemical simulations
• Models to simulate evolution of aerosols and
  their optical properties on regional scales
• Database for organic and black carbon aerosols
  needs to be developed for current sources and
  historical record of abundances of these
  materials
• Models for the formation of secondary aerosols
• Studies of aerosol archives

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INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT

• Instruments to further understand radiative
  properties
• Instruments needed to improve understanding
  properties of of organic and black carbon
  aerosols and their impact on clouds
• Provide proper instruments for DOE aircraft
• Present developments in National Labs need to be
  focused and integrated into broader based
  research programs

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• Table IICCSP FY
  2003 Funding for Aerosol Research
• Relevant
  to Climate Change by Agency
• 
  (Dollars are in millions)
• Agency                  Core Programs1            
           Contributing Programs2
• DOE 3.03                                
          7.03
• EPA                                               
                                     15.3
• NASA           12.0
• NOAA                               5.84
• NSF                                  2.84
                                             7.0
• ______                            _______
  _______
• TOTALS                         
  23.6                                           
  29.3
• __________________________________________________
  _______
• 1   Focused on aerosol-climate research
• 2   Not directly focused on aerosol-climate
  research but relevant to aerosol-climate
• 3   Prior to reconfiguration of the Atmospheric
  Science Program

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OTHER FINDINGS

• Time to reappraise level of funding
• Agency Program Managers need to meet regularly to
  discuss issues of mutual interest
• A great deal of on-going research and
  instrumentation development at National Labs has
  application to the Reconfigured ASP and needs to
  be made more widely known through regular
  meetings with BER Program Managers

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• Reconfiguration of ASP has great merit and should
  be implemented as soon as possible
• Goal is the reduction of uncertainties in the two
  gap areas
• Need a well balanced program
• Reconfigured ASP needs to coordinate and
  collaborate with ARM and other programs

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RECOMMENDATIONS CONTINUED

• Collaboration needed with federal, state,
  non-governmental organizations as well as
  international entities
• Reconfigured ASP should use DOE and CCSP modeling
  programs as test beds
• SC and BER should argue vociferously for support

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WAS THE CHARGE ANSWERED ?

• Two major gap areas that contribute to
  uncertainty were identified
• Current aerosol research in DOE and other
  agencies was obtained from briefings
• Facilities and capabilities currently available
  or ones that are need were identified
• Guidance on what a reasonable and appropriate
  Reconfigured ASP should contain was provided

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• BERAC AEROSOL PANEL MEMBERS
• Eugene W. Bierly Outreach AGU
• Barbara Finlayson-Pitts Dept of
  Chemistry UC/Irvine
• Inez Y. Fung Ctr for Atmospheric
  Sci UC/Berkeley
• Jim E Hansen Goddard Inst Space Sci NASA
• George Hidy Envair/Aerochem
• Kuo Nan Liou Dept of Atmospheric Sci UCLA
• James F. Meagher Aeronomy Laboratory NOAA
• Mario Molina Dept of Meteorology MIT
• Brian Toon Atmos Space Physics U Colorado