The 3rd ARM Mobile Facility in the Southeast United States: Current Plans for Science-Driven Facility Siting, Configuration, Instrumentation, and Outreach

CHONGAI KUANG, Scott Giangrande, Shawn Serbin, Brookhaven National Laboratory

     Abstract Number: 624
     Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosol

Abstract
The DOE ARM user facility is relocating the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) to the Southeast United States for a five-year deployment starting in the Fall of 2023, with siting focused on Northern Alabama. The Southeast United States is a region characterized by: high vegetative emissions of volatile organic compounds; a wide range in anthropogenic emissions from proximity to rural areas and dense urban cores; biomass burning from periodic prescribed and unplanned burning; and large amounts of secondary organic aerosol. This AMF3 deployment is a unique opportunity to improve understanding and model representation of coupled aerosol, cloud, and land-surface processes in an environment where such processes are strongly driven by local forcings. A defining aspect of this AMF3 deployment is an expectation for long-term observations to account for seasonal to annual variability. Understanding the role of spatiotemporal variability (e.g., atmospheric thermodynamic variability, variation in land-surface properties and seasonality) across aspects of the climate system is a key motivator for AMF3 studies. This is especially true for characterizing the relationships between aerosol and land-surface processes over a diverse patchwork of natural, managed, and urban landscapes found across the region. The Site Science Team (SST) is tasked to help identify the most impactful AMF3 science drivers, locations, key instruments and measurement strategies to address wider climate-process study needs. Building on previous siting criteria, instrument justifications, updates and interactive feedback sessions provided to the broader community, the SST will present its latest planning updates, including recent “site short-list” feedback to map relevant science themes to a narrower subset of potential AMF3 locations. These efforts steer towards a comprehensive accounting (e.g., ‘science plan’) for eventual scientific opportunities as more deployment specifics become available.