AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES): A 5-Year Investigation of Ocean, Aerosols, and Clouds
Michael Behrenfeld, Chris Hostetler, RICHARD MOORE, NAAMES Science Team, NASA
Abstract Number: 275 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate
Abstract We present an overview of the recently-selected NAAMES mission concept, which is the first NASA Earth Venture – Suborbital mission focused on studying the coupled ocean ecosystem and atmosphere. Ocean ecosystem changes in a warmer world will likely induce significant changes in the chemical, physical, and optical properties of aerosols within the marine boundary layer. However, these consequences remain highly uncertain. Understanding the changes in the burden and properties of atmospheric aerosols is important because these aerosols can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) to form clouds that alter Earth's radiation balance, and hence, climate.
NAAMES focuses on the subpolar North Atlantic where models indicate particularly strong cloud sensitivity to aerosol perturbations, making this an excellent test region for process-level studies on ocean ecosystem-CCN-cloud linkages that are also relevant to other remote regions. The large spatiotemporal range in plankton stocks and species diversity in the North Atlantic improves distinction between biologically-impacted and non-impacted areas. This variability has contributed to previously observed correlations between chlorophyll and organic aerosol transported to coastal measurement stations and changes in remotely-sensed cloud reflectivity. However, a pressing need remains for interdisciplinary field campaigns that directly connect in situ measurements of ocean ecosystem properties to in situ atmospheric measurements with high spatial resolution. Only by doing so, can a mechanistic understanding be achieved of the ocean ecosystem-CCN-cloud relationships required for physics-based parameterization of Earth system models.
NAAMES utilizes a combination of ship-based, airborne, and remote sensing measurements that directly link ocean ecosystem processes leading to aerosol precursors, emissions of ocean-generated aerosols and precursor gases, and subsequent atmospheric evolution and processing. In this way, the NAAMES observational strategy is an end-to-end approach that quantifies the contribution of each aerosol component during each of the major phytoplankton lifecycle events. The NAAMES science objectives, instrumentation, and ship and aircraft capabilities will be discussed.