Hello, A yearly allocation for the LCRC cluster has been requested with the following updated information: Submitter/PI: Rao Kotamarthi Project Name: Atmos_Chem Division: ER Project title: Process Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport Associated funding: DOE,BLM,NASA Other Systems: NERSC Science: The scientific aim of the proposed modeling activity is to further the understanding of the chemistry and distribution of aerosols over certain regional domains and calculate the heating rates as a result of increased aerosol loading primarily over India. This modeling effort supports the Ganges Valley Aerosol Project (GVAX) a one-year field study funded by DOE BER for the years 2011-2012. Project description: 1. What are the sources and sinks of the aerosols comprising the “Asian brown cloud,” and what effects does it have on clear-sky radiation fields, as well as on cloud micro- and macrophysical properties? What effect does the diurnal PBL cycle in the Ganges valley have on the atmospheric distribution of aerosols? Recent studies indicate that nearly 50 90% of the measured black carbon aerosols that give rise to brown clouds over the Indian Ocean are from biomass burning (residential cooking and agricultural burning), but little quantitative information is available regarding how properties of these aerosols — such as light scattering and absorption and droplet nucleating properties — evolve as a function of time near the source Ganges valley region. Very little is also known about the vertical structure of the distribution of aerosols and the fraction of the aerosols that are available for regional- and global-scale transport from the source region in the Ganges valley. The one-year long AMF deployment is uniquely positioned to make continuous, high frequency measurements through the atmospheric column of aerosol optical properties, radiative transfer and cloud properties. In addition, to bring additional focus on resolving some of the more regional and chemical composition relate d questions inherent in this objective, we propose to conduct a winter intensive field operation starting from January 15th 2012 to March 15th 2012, at a time where aerosol loading over this part of India is known to be the highest. During this intensive, the G 1 will add the additional capability of generating in situ measurements and vertical profiles within the PBL and above to generate estimates of the amounts of aerosols that are transported into the mid troposphere and to regional scales. Additional resources such as MAOS, a surface site below in the valley from the location of AMF and a number of supporting surface sites operated by ISRO/IISc will be available. A more detailed description of this intensive is provided below. 2. What effect do increasing aerosols in the Ganges Valley have on the ISM? What effect do aerosols have on shortwave radiative forcing, mid-tropospheric heating and convective activity over continental India? With the AMF, we will be in a position to make continuous, extended estimates of heating rates within cloud over continental India by measuring cloud properties, drop sizes, and LWC and making complete radiative balance measurements of clouds. The uncertainty in parameterization of deep convective activity in climate models has a profound impact on the calculated climate sensitivity to rising CO2. Deep convective activity is common during much of the summer and pre-monsoon period; the initial onset of monsoon over the southern tip of India is initiated by land-sea circulation and then enhanced and driven by deep convective activity over the northern Indian plains. Specific to this study would be an opportunity to measure the influence of aerosols on deep convection. This highly complex, little understood problem in modeling deep convection is complementary to the elevated heat pump hypothesis. Measurement of aerosols from surface supersites to identify their chemical and phys ical characteristics will provide key constraints to the estimates of radiative forcing heating rates from these aerosols in the PBL during the winter and early spring intensive as discussed above. A second intensive operating period, during the pre-monsoon, is planned for the period extending from April 15th 2011 to June 15th 2011 for the purpose of coupling the surface measurements made by the AMF with measurements of in situ cloud properties and aerosol measurements made the IISc/ISRO Beechcraft-20, as well as ongoing Indian activities (Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India; ARFI) to obtain a regional footprint. This would be the first ever such effort to synthesize the various measurements into a combined data product over this region that would be available for model validation and evaluating current cloud level aerosol heating hypotheses. We plan to use a combination of models for the project, including the CCSM4.0, GEOS-CHEM for aerosol transport and IMAGE model for aerosol cloud interactions. Project URL: Current FY Hours Used: undetermined amount New FY Requested allocation: 100000 Justification: Thank You, The LCRC Accounts System