Weather-watching Doppler lidar instrument installed over Washington
23 Apr 2021
NIST and Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration measuring lower atmosphere wind flow for âgreenhouseâ gas emissions research.
NOAA s Scott Sandberg beside the new lidar system.The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerceâs Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the capital area.
Credit: T. Boyle/NIST
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the capital area.
Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses the light from a pulsed laser reflected off distant objects to make measurements of the atmosphere, similar to how radar uses radio waves to gather information on thunderstorms. Scanning Doppler lidars can make high-resolution measurements of horizontal winds, and resolve turbulent processes in the atmosphere to generate data required by sophisticated atmospheric transport models.
Health officials: S.C. paper plant accused of violations, main culprit of more than 5,000 complaints about strong stench plaguing multiple counties New Indy paper plant (Source: WBTV) By Brandy Beard | April 10, 2021 at 4:59 PM EDT - Updated April 11 at 11:50 AM
CATAWBA, S.C. (WBTV) - The stinky situation in South Carolina continues.
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) provided an update April 9 that named the New Indy Containerboard paper plant a “significant contributor” to the orders plaguing York and Lancaster county residents for months.
According to the agency, more than 5,000 complaints were reported from those in York and Lancaster counties, as well as from some North Carolinians, since March 12.
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Praveena Krishnan
The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs has awarded ORAU a collaborative research grant to study greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic. The award is valued at $581,829.
The grant will be used to study local and regional emissions of isotopes of methane and carbon dioxide. Methane and carbon dioxide are two greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can help raise the Earth’s temperature, changing the climate and causing other significant changes. (Isotopes are different forms of an element that have equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.)
In a press release, ORAU said carbon stored in permafrost is increasingly vulnerable to thaw and decomposition by microbes as northern latitudes such as the Arctic continue to warm.