What's New
Marjorie C (Photo: Pasha Hawaii)
Derek Coffman, Hanna Best, and Lucia Upchurch, with their Modular Sampling Platform (Photo: Derek Coffman)
PMEL's Atmospheric Chemistry Group (ACG) and U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are working together to deploy the first of an autonomous system to observe atmospheric, cloud, and aerosol properties on a commercial ship called BEACONS (Boundary Layer Exploration of Aerosols and Clouds ON Ships).
The 6-month pilot project is scheduled to begin as early as May. ACG will take measurements of aerosol properties relevant to radiative forcing including the particle number size distribution, total particle number concentration, and aerosol light scattering and absorption coefficients. Measurements will be collected by the Modular Sampling Platform (MSP, pictured) developed by ACG at PMEL. The MSP will be stationed atop the flybridge forward of the stack on the commercial ship "Marjorie C" which transits regularly between San Diego and Hawaii. The ACG and PNNL measurements will be used to develop an unattended system for aerosol and cloud data collection to improve model prediction.
Placing the MSP on a commercial ship that routinely... more
PMEL in the News
PMEL/GOBOP, Scripps Ocean Institute and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution received the Fund for Science and Technology Award from Paul G. Allen Philanthropies for expanding Deep Argo float research.
Understanding how Alaska’s vast marine ecosystems are changing requires long, consistent records — something scientists have rarely had access to in one place.
A specialized plane, camera and a crew of four are in Alaska to understand the ecosystems of the Bering and Chukchi seas. UW CICOES / NOAA PMEL scientist Jiaxu Zhang, the ArcticAIR project lead, is quoted.
Feature Publication
A researcher with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory collects samples from Sequim Bay, Washington that will be analyzed for total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon measurements during the February 2025 alkalinity release experiment. Credit: Nick Ward, PNNL
Carefully enhanced wastewater could one day benefit coastal marine resources
The continual rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn't just changing weather patterns, it's also silently altering the chemistry of the global... more