Latest Status Reports

TDF Developments Funded in FY 2007

Overview of How TDF Development Priorities have been Established

During the past two years, development priorities in the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) have been established using a multifaceted approach. Initial development ideas have originated from multiple sources, including: NSF  program managers; the NSF User and Facilities Assessment Workshops; the external advisory committee to EOL; EOL facility managers; the development advisory committee (DAC), a committee comprised of representatives from each EOL facility; and from EOL, NCAR, and external colleagues. Once formulated, the development ideas have been vetted using a multistep process based upon the following selection criteria: scientific/engineering need and merit; benefits to the community; engineering risks; constraints (budgetary, personal, and scheduling); and fit with EOL and NCAR’s strategic plans. The process for small emerging seed projects with budgets less than 10k are less involved, but still require a review process. After consideration of budgets and the various selection criteria, TDF in consultation with the EOL Management Advisory Committee (MAC) make final decisions on which development projects to support. For the next round when new development proposals are considered (perhaps in FY 2009), a greater emphasis up front will be placed on development proposals falling within central themes identified by EOL management.

1.  Lidar Wind Profiler

This effort, which began in Jan. 2007, explores the possibility  of utilizing EOL's Raman Shifted Eye Safe Aerosol (REAL)  Lidar to measure winds and possibly turbulence using a rotating wedge. Such a system potentially offers better time resolution, altitude resolution while reducing the effects of clutter (such as signals from the ground, birds, etc.) and interference from radio waves than is possible from current radar wind profilers and SODAR systems. This project is in the design feasibility stage with two different designs  being  considered: 1) a rotating wedge for the transmit beam with increased detection field of view, and 2) a larger rotating wedge for both the transmit and receive beams. The positives and negatives of both approaches are presently being considered with a final decision is expected in late November 2007.

2.  CAMS Instrument for the G-V

EOL began development of the Compact Atmospheric Multi-species Spectrometer (CAMS) for the G-V in FY 2007. This new instrument will rely on the same state-of-the-art advancements employing difference frequency generation  (DFG) technology as other EOL airborne infrared absorption spectrometers, but with major upgrades and innovations for operation on the G-V platform. It is one of many important trace gas chemistry instruments being developed for the NSF/NCAR G-V for a proposed  DC-3 study (Deep Clouds, Convection & Chemistry) as well as other airborne studies in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. This new instrument is being specifically developed for detection of formaldehyde and potentially other trace gases such as methanol, acetylene, ethylene, formic acid, and/or ethanol. Development of CAMS is well underway with several major tasks presently being carried out. These include investigation of: 1) a new waveguide infrared conversion module from NTT Photonics Laboratory in Japan for improved conversion efficiency; 2) new alignment approaches for the multipass cell; 3) temperature and pressure effects on fiber optic components and performance; 4) new computer platform design and associated data acquisition algorithms and multi-species concepts; 5) compact modular computer hardware and software architectures; and 6) the inlet design to minimize perturbations due to aerosol evaporation when flying through clouds. The results from each task are critical to the final CAMS instrument design.

3.  NO/NOy for the G-V

In FY 07 EOL funded the completion of this instrument for measuring NO and NOy (the sum of various gas phase nitrogen oxide species) on the G-V. This instrument will be used in many chemistry campaigns, and in 2010 will be an integral part in the proposed DC-3 experiment.  A version of this instrument has recently flown on the NASA WB-57 during the TC4 study and a serious problem discovered in that study is now being corrected. A number of components have been rebuilt and/or rewired to G-V standards in the process of preparing for the TC4 study. Major progress has been achieved and it is anticipated that the instrument will be ready to fly on the HEFT project in February of 2008 in preparation for participation in START08.

4.  Development of a plan for long-wave radiation for the G-V

In our efforts to continually produce state of the art observing technology, EOL staff is leading a development effort for an instrument to measure long-wave radiation emitted by the earth's surface from the G-V platform. Measurements of terrestrial emissions are an essential element in understanding the earth's radiative budget. Personnel in EOL are conducting surveys to define community needs for such instrumentation and devise a plan to improve upon what currently exists. Ultimately, this will lead to the development of new G-V instrument with this important capability. Survey results are presently coming in and a written summary with future project plans will be prepared by the end of the calender year.

5.   SATCOM software products for the G-V

In F07 EOL started gathering input from the NCAR/NSF user community about what products they desire relative to  what is currently available in regards to Satcom software products.  This project has been discussed at inter-agency working groups, but owing to difficulties in coordinating field schedules in FY 2007, no workshop other than that at the NSF-User Workshop in September was planned. A breakout session at this workshop was held, and many technical people (~ 15 - 20) with few users attended. A number of workshop suggestions were received just as the HIAPER hardware issues were being solved (increased bandwidth and solved Iridium issues).  Based upon this effort, the following recommendations will be implemented: 1) there will be explicit wording in Facility Request Form what will be offered at no cost and will cost more; 2) there will be an effort to tighten up what is currently being offered; and 3) collaborative software (video conferencing, shared display in flight planning mode, etc.) are being considered. After receipt of a final report this year, this project will be completed.

6.   Water Vapor  Reference Sounding System

This collaboration between NSF/EOL and South West Sciences Incorporated (SWI) is aimed at exploring the feasibility of balloon-borne tunable diode laser (TDL) technology for in-situ water vapor measurements with verifiable accuracy. Such measurements are badly needed by the climate community. This activity will begin in April of 2008 after a comprehensive assessment of the airborne water vapor spectrometer from SWI has been carried out. 

7.    Meteorological Satellite Data Collection and Processing

Funding was provided to improve satellite imager and sounder data collection and processing capabilities. This objective was completed at the end of the 2006 calendar year. Other approved project objectives which required only staff time included: 1) an upgrade of the GOES data archive access and services, and 2) collection of feedback from the scientific community with regard to future needs for satellite data and products and services, particularly requirements for support of field operations and research. Progress on objective 1)  has been achieved with changes to the GOES Data archive now allowing users to obtain data through 1-click ordering from a web page showing all the files and their associated metadata. Further design improvements are in the final stages of testing. The main obstacle to completing this task is getting time to work on it between field projects.

Work is in the early stages for objective 2).  A questionnaire has been designed and will be released shortly to internal UCAR/NCAR staff, soliciting input with regard to the institution’s current capabilities, resources and future needs in accessing and processing meteorological and related satellite data. A second questionnaire will be prepared to collect input from the scientific community to assess the current and future needs of our users. Community feedback from the questionnaires and the workshop will play a major role in helping EOL determine where it’s priorities should be with regard to satellite data collection and processing. Assessment of input from the questionnaires and the User’s workshop will take place in the fall after the workshop is completed. Heavy involvement by project staff in field experiments is affecting the progress of this work.

8.  WISARD: Wireless Integrated Sensor ARray Demonstration

In contrast to the other 7 development efforts funded this past year, the WISARD effort represents the first small emerging investigative request (requests with a total cost under 10k) designed for small exploratory projects and feasibility studies. Accordingly, the selection process for such studies is significantly less rigorous than the regular TDF proposal effort. The WISARD effort seeks to demonstrate the viability of a next-generation near-surface facility that would wirelessly network a multi-disciplinary array of off-the-grid sensors on a highly portable, readily deployable tower.  Following this proof-of-concept (Phase I) and subsequent input from the geoscientific community (through a survey) a Phase II TDF proposal would be pursued. This effort, which just started in the summer of 2007, should be completed within 1 year or less.

Other Development Efforts Not Funded by FY 2007 TDF Funds

High Precision carbon dioxide isotopic ratio instrument

This long-standing development project that began in FY 2002 with NSF Biocomplexity Special Funds progressed rapidly in FY 2007. This instrument will provide continuous (seconds to minutes time resolution) high precision measurements of ¹³CO₂ to ¹²CO₂ using a new infrared spectroscopic instrument utilizing the same DFG technology as the airborne CAMS instrument. This will augment more traditional measurements of this ratio from high precision isotopic ratio mass spectrometry, leading to an enhanced understanding of the carbon cycle.  The present precision of ~ 0.3 per mil achieved in ~ 2 minutes is close to the design goal of 0.1 per mil. However, a number of noise source sources discovered this past year, when properly addressed, can reduce this precision by an order of magnitude. Such performance would make this technique directly competitive with the immobile mass spectrometric approach.

Throughout FY2007  and FY2008 extensive laboratory testing will continue on this instrument in an effort to eliminate the identified noise sources and this will be followed by an extensive effort to assure measurement accuracy. Field-testing, including side-by-side sampling with an isotopic ratio mass spectrometer, is anticipated near the end of FY 2008.

Development of a high efficiency waveguide DFG instrument

With partial support from the NCAR Director's Opportunity Fund in 2006, TDF personnel have been working with Japanese scientists and engineers from the NTT Photonics Laboratory, NTT Corporation in developing and assessing a new high performance optical frequency conversion technology based upon wave-guide DFG devices. This group published a paper on the first phase of this instrument development and assessment in FY 2007 and is currently working on an improved version. Research Engineers and Scientists in EOL anticipate significantly improved performance, both in terms of higher output powers and conversion efficiencies, from the new DFG device. If successful, this will open up many new detection methods for instruments on the G-V.