MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for an Integrated South Florida Cloud-Aerosol-Rain-OBserving System (CAROB)

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这项工作由美国国家科学基金会的主要研究仪器项目支持，将采购、整合和应用一套仪器，使迈阿密大学的科学家和合作机构能够研究南佛罗里达和邻近水域大气中气溶胶与云的相互作用。这种环境，伴随着季节性的气流变化，经历了各种条件，从夏季来自撒哈拉沙漠的沙尘气团的入侵，到冬季北美大陆东南方向的污染气团，以及在更安静的时期的海洋气溶胶。这种可变但反复出现的气溶胶气候学与气象环境相结合，从信风（夏季）到斜压锋面通道（冬季），再到偶尔的飓风（夏末/初秋），因此提供了一个很好的环境，可以研究气溶胶、大气对太阳和红外辐射的透射/吸收以及云过程之间的联系。请求的设备包括一个翻新的94 GHz云雷达和风廓线仪、一个气溶胶探测激光雷达、微波辐射计、云凝结核计数器、一对太阳光度计和一个ceilometer。除了迈阿密大学工作人员现有的研究和技术专长外，现有设备还包括9.4 GHz （x波段）雷达、94 GHz雷达组件和允许移动操作的集装箱/货车，进一步利用了新仪器和改进仪器的组合。这组气溶胶和远程云传感器的同步观测将用于提供频繁、常规和长期的测量，以统计上有意义的方式代表云-气溶胶相互作用。这项工作的智力价值集中在努力更好地量化气候系统内气溶胶对云微物理和宏观物理（“云反馈”）的影响，并扩展到改善对热带气旋和其他更常见的风暴的强度和发展的调节过程的理解。通过加强大学的研究基础设施和在课堂和研究生研究培训中使用这些数据流，包括开发关于“佛罗里达气候”的课堂模块，将产生更广泛的影响。推广和传播将包括在迈阿密大学的弗吉尼亚基和珊瑚盖布尔斯校区展示数据，以及基于网络的分发。观测系统将作为K-12学生团体校园参观的焦点，测量结果将提供给现有的全球数据库（包括AERONET和MPLNET），供更大的科学界使用。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This effort supported through NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program will procure, integrate and apply a suite of instrumentation to enable a community of scientists at the University of Miami and collaborating institutions to study aerosol-cloud interactions in the atmosphere over South Florida and adjacent waters. This environment, with its seasonally-shifting airflow regimes, experiences conditions ranging from incursions of dust-laden airmasses originating over the Saharan desert during the summer months, polluted airmasses surging southeastward over the North American continent during winter, and marine aerosols during more quiescent periods. This variable yet recurring aerosol climatology is coupled with meteorological settings ranging from a Trade Wind regime (in summer) to baroclinic frontal passages (in winter) to occasional hurricanes (late summer/early fall), thus providing an excellent environment in which to examine linkages among aerosols, atmospheric transmission/absorption of solar and infrared radiation, and cloud processes. Requested equipment includes components for a refurbished 94 GHz cloud radar and wind profiler, an aerosol detecting lidar, microwave radiometer, cloud condensation nuclei counter, a pair of sun photometers, and a ceilometer. This combination of new and revamped instrumentation is further leveraged by existing equipment including a 9.4 GHz (X-band) radar, 94 GHz radar components and a container/van allowing mobile operations, in addition to existing research and technical expertise among University of Miami staff. Synchronized observations by this assembled suite of aerosol and remote cloud sensors will be used to provide frequent, routine and long-term measurements of the sort needed to represent cloud-aerosol interactions in a statistically meaningful way. The intellectual merit of this effort centers upon efforts to better quantify aerosol impacts on cloud microphysics and macrophysics ("cloud feedbacks") within the climate system, and extend to improved understanding of processes involved in modulating the strength and development of tropical cyclones and other more commonly occurring storms. Broader impacts will be derived through enhancement of the University's research infrastructure and use of these datastreams in classroom and graduate research training, including development of a class module on "The Florida Climate." Outreach and dissemination will include display of data on both the Virginia Key and Coral Gables campuses of the University of Miami as well as web-based distribution. The observing system will serve as a focal point for campus tours by K-12 student groups, and measurements will be contributed to existing global databases (including AERONET and MPLNET) utilized by the larger scientific community.