Argonne Scientists Help Launch MAGIC Climate Study

Editor’s note: This summer, I spent some time with Argonne National Laboratory scientists and technicians, who were busy equipping mini-laboratories designed to gather and measure the properties of clouds, precipitation, aerosols and radiation – all from the deck of a cargo ship.

On the outside, the labs may look similar to the other shipping containers they will accompany on the Los Angeles-to-Honolulu trips. But rather than being filled with automobiles and appliances, the “cargo” in the containers retrofitted by scientists at Argonne includes aerosol spectrometers (of the ultra-high sensitivity type), hygroscopic tandem differential mobility analyzers and numerous other data-gathering instruments.

The sensitive instruments will gather and send information as they make about 25 trips between Los Angeles and Honolulu over the next year, aboard the Horizon Ship Lines’ Spirit.

The following press release from Argonne and Brookhaven national laboratories details the mission of the MAGIC climate study as it began its journey at sea on Monday:

A Horizon Lines container ship outfitted with meteorological and atmospheric instruments installed by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientists from Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory will begin taking data today for a yearlong mission aimed at improving the representation of clouds in climate models.

The study, a collaborative effort between DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) http://www.arm.gov/ program Climate Research Facility and Horizon Lines, marks the first official marine deployment of the second ARM Mobile Facility, AMF2, and is likely the most elaborate climate study ever mounted aboard a commercial vessel.

“We are very grateful to Horizon Lines for giving us the opportunity to install our research equipment aboard the Horizon Spirit,” said lead investigator Ernie Lewis, an atmospheric scientist at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

The Horizon Spirit makes a roundtrip journey from Los Angeles to Hawaii every two weeks, which allows for repeated measurements over the same transect at different seasons.

“Collecting data on a wide range of atmospheric conditions over an entire year, including the transitions among cloud types along this particular route, will give us a large amount of data to help refine and validate models of Earth’s climate,” Lewis said.

The project—dubbed MAGIC, for the Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds, where GPCI is a project comparing results from the major climate models—will take place through September 2013.

“We are excited to deploy the AMF2 sensors and the infrastructure that supports them on the Horizon Spirit. This represents the culmination of four years of hard work in designing, building and preparing to deploy aboard an ocean going vessel,” said AMF2 Technical Operations Manager Michael Ritsche, an atmospheric scientist at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

Clouds and climate

Low marine boundary layer clouds over the ocean exert a large influence on Earth’s climate through reflection of sunlight and by mediating interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean, Lewis explained.

However, global climate models have difficulty accurately representing these clouds and the transitions among their different types. Extensive data collection from a marine environment with variable cloud cover could significantly improve these models.

Horizon Spirit’s route crosses just such a region, making it ideal for assessing the effects of changing cloud conditions. This region is important to a wide range of climate models included in the GPCI project.

“Horizon Spirit’s route from Los Angeles to Honolulu lies almost on top of the GPCI line, providing a great opportunity for extensive data collection,” said Lewis. “We approached Horizon about working together on this project with the idea that our equipment could be installed on the ship with no disruption of their ordinary operations.”

“Horizon Lines is happy to cooperate in the year-long MAGIC project to improve climate modeling,” said Pete Strohla, Vice President of Operating Services at Horizon Lines. “Our hope is that better understanding of climate change will facilitate more accurate weather forecasting, which in turn will help our industry plan safer and more fuel-efficient vessel routes.”

Argonne’s role in the MAGIC study

A group from Argonne in charge of the deployment has spent the past nine months preparing the instruments and optimizing their performance for shipboard data collection. Many instruments, including an aerosol observing system developed by Brookhaven scientists, are housed in three modified 20-foot SeaTainer cargo containers designed for mobile deployment.

Other instruments include radars that are mounted to tables designed to maintain stable “vision” despite the inherent rolling of the ship’s deck as it plies the waves. All of these instruments were installed aboard the Horizon Spirit while it was in port in Los Angeles in September, with final preparations made while en route to Hawaii and back.

“Altogether, the AMF2 comprises a suite of instruments to measure properties of clouds and precipitation, aerosols, and infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light, as well as meteorological and oceanographic conditions,” Lewis said. “These ship-based measurements can provide much more detailed information than can be determined from satellites, and these data will prove a valuable addition to other measurements that have been made in marine conditions, albeit for much shorter periods, for many of these quantities.”

The science team—which includes researchers from DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in addition to Brookhaven, as well as collaborators from NASA, Stony Brook University, and a range of other universities and private consultants—is anxiously anticipating the data that will arise from the endeavor.

“In the end, these data will greatly enhance our understanding of clouds, aerosols, Earth’s energy and water balance, and the interactions among them in the marine environment, providing an unequalled dataset for evaluating and improving climate models. Our data, which will be placed in the ARM Data Archive, will be made available to anyone who is interested,” Lewis said.

For more details of the preparations and instruments deployed see:

• MAGIC<http://www.arm.gov/sites/amf/mag/> website
• MAGIC “Cruise” Aboard Spirit Getting Ready to Set Sail<http://www.bnl.gov/envsci/news/news.asp?a=2742&t=today>
• MAGIC updates written for scientists and nonscientists alike<http://www.bnl.gov/envsci/ARM/MAGIC/updates.php>

 MAGIC is funded by the DOE Office of Science, DOE’s the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov<http://science.energy.gov/>.

About Argonne

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC<http://www.uchicagoargonnellc.org/> for the U.S. Department of Energy’s<http://energy.gov/> Office of Science<http://science.energy.gov/>.

About Brookhaven

One of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security.

Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry, and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, for and on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities; and Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.  

Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more (http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom<http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom>) or follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter (http://twitter.com/BrookhavenLab).