Workshop to Explore Science Opportunities and Concepts for a US Aerosol-Cloud-Microphysics Research Facility; Boulder, Colorado - Fall 2019

该奖项授予一个研讨会，该研讨会将探索科学问题，并为潜在的美国气溶胶-云研究设施设定优先事项。云是天气和气候不可或缺的一部分，但许多云过程背后的物理机制还没有完全被理解。美国研究界目前必须与欧洲的同事合作，才能进入一个大型云室设施。研讨会将调查美国的大型实验室设施是否会给科学界带来重大好处，如果是，那么这个实验室应该是什么样子。这次研讨会的主要社会影响将是面向未来的，因为最终的云-气雾室将提供帮助改进天气和气候模拟的国家资源。会议将于2019年底在科罗拉多州博尔德市举行。讲习班的主要目标将是衡量社区的兴趣，并对可能适合实验室调查的各种科学挑战有优先次序的认识。组织者指出，之前在机构文件和社区讨论中已经描述了对路径长度超过10米、总体积超过100立方米的云室的需求。这个研讨会将解决这样一个房间里可以学到什么，否则就不能学习的问题，以及它应该拥有什么样的测量能力。调查人员估计有40-50名人员在气溶胶和大气化学、云微物理、云建模和参数化、辐射传播和传输以及湍流对流和多相流方面具有专业知识。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is for a workshop that will explore scientific questions and set priorities for a potential US-based aerosol-cloud research facility. Clouds are an integral part of weather and climate but the physics behind many cloud processes are not fully understood. The US research community must currently work with colleagues in Europe to gain access to a large cloud chamber facility. The workshop will investigate whether a US-based large chamber facility would be a significant benefit to the scientific community and, if so, what that chamber should look like. The main societal impact of this workshop will be future-looking, as an eventual cloud-aerosol chamber would provide a national resource to help improve weather and climate modeling.The meeting will take place in Boulder, Colorado in late 2019. The main objective of the workshop will be to gauge community interest and to obtain a sense of priorities for the various scientific challenges that are likely to be amenable to laboratory investigation. The organizers note that the need for a cloud chamber with path lengths over 10m and a total volume over 100m3 has been previously described in agency documents and in community discussions. This workshop will address questions about what can be learned in such a chamber that can't otherwise be studied, and what kind of measurement capabilities it should have. The investigators have estimated attendance at 40-50 personnel with expertise in aerosol and atmospheric chemistry, cloud microphysics, cloud modeling and parameterization, radiation propagation and transfer, and turbulent convection and multiphase flows.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.