A multi-institutional team has introduced a new approach that merges in situ sampling and measurements using uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) with a cutting-edge three-dimensional chemical imaging analytical method (time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry) to address this gap in understanding.
This combination allows researchers to collect data and samples from the real world for laboratory analysis, which provides new opportunities to advance scientific understanding. It also contributes data needed to make atmospheric models more accurate and reliable. Their accomplishment is reported in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society .
The team's new approach and framework shows great potential in constraining process-level model simulations via integrating UAS observational capabilities and advanced chemical analysis. The team leveraged the development of UAS capabilities and advanced measurement techniques to obtain spatial data on the microphysical and optical properties of aerosols around the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility's Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory in Oklahoma.
The UAS flights are used to demonstrate the importance of characterizing aerosols' chemical composition and surface properties for subsequent use in simulating the impact of microphysical and optical properties on radiative forcing. By integrating advanced chemical information with vertical profiles of the microphysical properties of aerosols, the fidelity of large-eddy simulations of aerosol effects on clouds and the radiation budget can be improved.
