National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCAR activities for Nauru99

Nauru99 is a field project to study the tropical ocean and atmosphere around the island of Nauru in the central western Pacific ocean. The project is part of an on-going campaign by the ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) program of the U.S. Department of Energy to study global climate. Two highly instrumented research vessels, the R/V Mirai operated by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) and the R/V Ron Brown operated by NOAA were deployed for the project. ARM has a long term climate monitoring station on the island and one aim of the Nauru99 campaign is to calibrate this station against measurements made by the ships off the coast of the island. This activity both checks the instruments and also helps determine how representative the island measurements are of the surrounding ocean. The campaign conducted a detailed study of the interactions between the tropical ocean and atmosphere and also provided a test-bed for new technologies for climate monitoring.

INSTRUMENTS

NCAR/ATD operated a range of instruments on both the R/V Mirai and the R/V Ron Brown.

R/V Mirai

Picture of profilers on the deck of the Mirai

MAPR (Multiple Antenna Profiler Radar) an advanced wind profiler radar capable of making rapid measurements of the wind profile overhead
DBS (Doppler Beam Swinging) Wind Profiler radar for making regular wind measurements
RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System), which uses the DBS Wind Profiler to track sound waves in order to measure air temperature above the ship
Microwave Radiometer to measure integrated liquid water vapor above the ship. The radiometer was supplied by Radiometrics Corporation and was run using software supplied by Jim Liljegren
Sea surface temperature using a "sea snake" sensor
Surface meteorology sensors to monitor wind, temperature, humidity, and long and short wave solar radiation
Navigation (GPS and flux-gate magnetometer) and tilt/roll sensors to correct wind measurements for ship motion

NCAR also maintained a vertically pointing S-Band radar on the Mirai for NOAA/ETL. Further information on the DBS wind profiler, RASS, and surface meteorology sensors is on the Integrated Sounding System page.

R/V Ron Brown

HRDL (High Resolution Doppler Lidar) supplied by NOAA/ETL to make high resolution wind and aerosol measurements

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

R/V Mirai Daily Plots :

Select Data Set Select Date

Summary and Case Studies :

Daily mean winds observed using the DBS wind profiler
Composite day observations made by the DBS wind profiler
Integrated water vapor and liquid water as measured by a microwave radiometer
Comparison of integrated water vapor measured by a microwave radiometer and radiosondes
MAPR observations of a squall
RASS observations hinting at island heating of the boundary layer

Analysis of the observations is continuing, check back soon for more results.

STAFF

Several NCAR staff were involved in the project. For the Mirai operations Dave Parsons was the principle investigator, Bill Brown was the investigator on the spot, spending 4 weeks on the Mirai assisted by Mike Susedik and Lou Verstraete. Charlie Martin and Steve Semmer helped with setting up the equipment in Yokohama, Japan. Junhong Wang, Francois Guichard, and Erik Miller are helping with data analysis. Volker Wulfmeyer was on the Ron Brown for a month with the HRDL Lidar.

NCAR activities for Nauru99

INSTRUMENTS

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

STAFF

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