Program Mission
The mission of ASR (http://asr.science.energy.gov/), in partnership with the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF), is to quantify the interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, radiation, dynamics, and thermodynamics to improve fundamental process-level understanding, with the ultimate goal to reduce the uncertainty in global and regional climate simulations and projections.
Program Approach
To accomplish this mission ASR utilizes continuous long-term datasets that provide measurements of radiation, aerosols, clouds, precipitation, dynamics, and thermodynamics over a range of environmental conditions at several fixed and mobile ACRF sites situated in climatically diverse locations. These datasets are supplemented with laboratory studies and shorter-duration ground-based and airborne field campaigns to target specific atmospheric processes under a diversity of locations and atmospheric conditions. The long- and short-term data, together with models, are employed to understand and parameterize the processes that govern the atmospheric components and their interactions over all pertinent scales. Finally, ASR seeks to develop integrated, scale-bridging test-beds for model parameterizations that incorporate this process-level understanding of the life cycles of aerosols, clouds, and precipitation in numerical models.
Program Funding Opportunity Announcements
Announcements are posted on the DOE Office of Science Grants and Contracts Web Site and at grants.gov
Information about preparing and submitting applications, as well as the DOE Office of Science merit review process, is available at the DOE Office of Science Grants and Contracts Web Site. For current announcements, visit BER Funding Opportunities.
Importance of the Program's Research
Research from the ASR program results in improved physical formulations leading to the state-of-the-art science related to clouds, aerosols, radiation, and precipitation. The program is geared to observe and advance understanding of the atmospheric system in a holistic, comprehensive fashion that addresses the full range of interrelated climatic processes. The anticipated end result is that climate models will have reduced uncertainty and improved climate simulation capability so that climate models can be used with increased confidence in decision and policy making.
Data Sharing Policy
Funding of projects by the program is contingent on adherence to the BER data sharing policy.
Program Research Activities
The aerosol-cloud-radiation continuum and its role in the climate system is complex with many physical and dynamical facets.The ASR program's research is centered on these processes that must be well understood as well as transfer of that new knowledge to improve the representation of aerosol, cloud, radiation, and precipitation processes in climate models. Currently supported science research areas include:
Aerosol Life Cycle: Research studies on key processes that determine aerosol formation, composition, structure, and optical properties, with emphases on the formation of secondary organic aerosols and absorbing carbon aerosols; aerosol direct and indirect effects on radiation.
Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions: Cloud-aerosol interactions, including how droplet and crystal nucleation mechanisms are related to the aerosol properties (size, shape, and composition), and how aerosol properties (including optical properties) are modified by those interactions; testing and evaluating the efficacy of current and future coupled meteorological-chemical-aerosol models at multiple spatial scales; observational and modeling studies of aerosol indirect effects on clouds and precipitation; integration of theory, various measurements from in situ and remote sensing platforms, and models; analysis of vertical distribution of radiative properties of aerosols and clouds.
Collaborations with CESD Climate Modeling Programs: in order to promote efficient implementation of improved atmospheric process understanding into DOE-supported coupled climate models, ASR participates in model activities with the division's modeling programs. These include:
- The fast physics project(http://www.bnl.gov/ccpp/)aims at enhancing and accelerating evaluation and improvement of parameterizations of fast processes (sub-grid processes) in GCMs by constructing a fast-physics, and by utilizing the continuous ASR measurements. Special focus is on those fast processes that involve clouds, precipitation, and aerosols.
- The CAPT project (http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/projects/capt/) aims at realistic initialization of climate models but run models in forecast mode to determine initial drift from the NWP analyses and/or from the available field data, thereby gaining insights on model parameterization deficiencies.
Abstracts: Summaries of currently funded program research projects.
Program Managers:
Dr. Ashley Williamson
Climate and Environmental Sciences Division, SC-23.1
Department of Energy -- GTN Bldg
1000 Independence Ave, SW
Washington, DC 20585-1290
(301) 903-3120
Fax: (301) 903-8519
Email: Ashley.Williamson@science.doe.gov