Wyoming King Air as a National Facility

该项目的主要目标是向地球科学研究界提供一架可用于执行任务的飞机(怀俄明大学国王航空公司)。怀俄明州国王航空大学在国家科学基金会支持的一系列低层大气观测设施中发挥着独特的作用。这架研究飞机为云、降水、大气化学、野火和边界层气象研究提供了一种体积小、重量轻、相对便宜的灵活机载平台。在五年的奖励期间，由国家科学基金会资助的科学家可以通过低层大气观测设施计划申请使用飞机、云雷达和/或云激光雷达进行大气研究。该奖项为科学家、工程师、技术人员、飞行员和机械师提供基地支持，他们维护和部署这架尖端研究飞机的飞机和仪器。该奖项包括支持该设施的实地部署的科学努力、数据保证和质量控制、整个科学界可访问的数据产品的交付和存档；以及将提高社区的科学和教育效益的仪器和软件升级的工程努力。由该设施实现的研究的影响可能是广泛和深远的，这取决于通过国家科学基金会的低大气观测设施计划请求使用它的个别项目。怀俄明州的研究飞机以及怀俄明州的云雷达、怀俄明州的云激光雷达和相关的研究仪器将使获取空中现场和遥感测量数据成为可能，以解决与地球科学相关的广泛课题。对该设施的支持将确保能够使用随时可供执行任务的研究飞机和相关仪器。怀俄明州国王空气能够用于从云-气溶胶相互作用到边界层动力学、空气质量、云和降水物理以及痕量气体和气溶胶化学的研究。怀俄明州国王航空设施收集的数据将利用来自飞机的联合现场测量以及怀俄明州云雷达和怀俄明州云激光雷达的遥感能力，目标是那些可以受益于飞机的灵活性和低运营成本的项目。地球科学界通过该奖项提供的测量能力将提供对大气特性和组成的更多了解，为大气过程提供新的想法，提供数值模型以改进大气表示，并最终导致对地球-大气天气和气候系统的更大可预测性。除了飞机带来的科学研究产生的深远而广泛的影响外，通过该奖项支持的工作的影响植根于它们对教育和培训下一代观测大气科学家的贡献。由于怀俄明国王航空大学是由一所大学拥有和运营的，它为教育和培训年轻科学家获得和使用空中大气观测以及开发维护、校准和评估空中仪器的工具和技术提供了一个自然的环境。使用和使用该设施和相关数据集的科学家开发的技能非常适合培训下一代大气科学家在全国各地的实验室或其他空中研究设施工作。该奖项反映了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。

The primary objective of this project is to provide a mission-ready aircraft (the University of Wyoming King Air) to the geoscience research community. The University of Wyoming King Air fulfills a unique role in the suite of lower atmosphere observing facilities supported by the National Science Foundation. This research aircraft provides a small, light weight, and relatively inexpensive aircraft as an agile airborne platform for cloud, precipitation, atmospheric chemistry, wildfire, and boundary layer meteorological research. During the five-year award period, scientists funded by the National Science Foundation may request the use of the aircraft, the cloud radar, and/or the cloud lidar through the Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities Program for the purpose of conducting atmospheric research. This award provides base support to a staff of scientists, engineers, technicians, pilots, and mechanics, who maintain and deploy the aircraft and instrumentation for this cutting-edge research aircraft. The award includes scientific effort to support field deployments of the facility, data assurance and quality control, delivery and archiving of data products accessible to the entire scientific community; and the engineering effort for instrumentation and software upgrades that will enhance the scientific and educational benefit to the community. The impact of the research enabled by the facility may be broad and far-reaching depending on the individual projects that request its use through the National Science Foundation's Lower Atmospheric Observing Facilities Program.The Wyoming research aircraft along with the Wyoming Cloud Radar, the Wyoming Cloud Lidar, and associated research instruments will enable acquisition of airborne in-situ and remote sensing measurements to address a broad range of geoscience-related topics. Support of the facility will ensure access to a mission-ready research aircraft and associated instrumentation. The Wyoming King Air is capable of use in studies ranging from cloud-aerosol interaction, to boundary-layer dynamics, air quality, cloud and precipitation physics, and chemistry of trace gases and aerosol. The data collected by the Wyoming King Air facility will take advantage of the combined in situ measurements from the aircraft and remote sensing capability of the Wyoming Cloud Radar and the Wyoming Cloud Lidar, targeting projects that can benefit from the agility of the aircraft and its low cost of operation. The measurement capabilities available to the geoscience community through this award will provide a greater understanding of atmospheric properties and composition, inform new ideas about atmospheric processes, feed numerical models to improve atmospheric representation, and ultimately lead to greater predictability of the earth-atmosphere weather and climate systems. In addition to the far-reaching broader impacts of the scientific studies that are enabled by the aircraft, the impacts of the work supported through this award are rooted in their contribution to education and training of the next generation of observational atmospheric scientists. Since the University of Wyoming King Air is owned and operated by a university, it provides a natural setting for educating and training young scientists in obtaining and using airborne atmospheric observations and in the development of tools and techniques for maintaining, calibrating, and assessing airborne instrumentation. The skills developed by scientists who use and work with the facility and associated data sets are well-suited to train the next generation of atmospheric scientists to work within laboratories or other airborne research facilities across the country.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.