GACP Meetings
Agenda of First Science Team Meeting
OBJECTIVE AND STRUCTURE
SCIENCE OBJECTIVE OF THE AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING SCIENCE TEAM:
To better understand the radiative impact of aerosols on the Earth's climate. Specifically, to develop a global aerosol climatology and to provide a quantitative assessment of radiative forcing caused by atmospheric aerosols during the 20-year period of satellite observations.
OBJECTIVE OF THE FIRST SCIENCE TEAM MEETING:
To provide an opportunity for all members of the team to learn about relevant individual research investigations and to develop a plan for integrating them into a collaborative effort to accomplish the science objective.
DISCUSSION OF THE OBJECTIVE AND APPROACH:
The aerosol radiative forcing science team is a group of individuals who are responsible for defining and accomplishing their own scientific investigations, all of which may contribute to our understanding of radiative/climate impact of aerosols. The assumption is that because of the complexity of the topic, a team of investigators who individually focus on a number of sub-topics, can be organized to approach the topic in a synergistic manner. The specific investigations represented on this team were selected from a number of positively evaluated proposals. The selections were made with consideration of the anticipated breadth of investigations required to address the more fundamental topic.
In order to function as a team, each of the members must be aware of the contributions which each of the investigations will make to developing an improved understanding. Thus, in the first meeting each of the contributory individual investigations should be introduced to the investigations of all of the other team members. There are several ways in which this can be accomplished but the one we have adopted seems to be the most efficient and logistically "do-able." In addition to a mutual understanding of the individual investigations, a plan must be developed which outlines the collaborations needed to accomplish the science objective. General agreement is also needed as to the schedule of the investigations and when the collaborations can logically be made. This level of detail may be more than what can be handled in the first meeting.
Ideally the first meeting should start with a review of past progress made and the status of research underway to address the fundamental science objective of this science team. However, because of time limitations and the anticipated experience of the team members, this review is not part of the present agenda. The Dahlem Workshop Report on Aerosol Forcing of Climate is an excellent recent (1995) text on the status of this topic. If one does not already exist, it might be useful for a subset of the team to develop a journal article which up-dates the Workshop Report (I'm aware of one or two efforts along these lines).
The format of this first science team meeting differs markedly from the formats suggested by participants of both the Dahlem Workshop and the Gordon Conference due to their contrasting meeting objectives. The overall goal of a Dahlem Workshop "is not necessarily to reach consensus, but rather to identify gaps in knowledge, to find new ways of approaching controversial issues, and to define priorities for future research." The goal of the science team, however is much more focused. This team has been assembled and is funded to do a specific job in a specific period of time. After discussion with many of the science team members a format was chosen which efficiently provides time for exchange of information amongst investigators and for discussion of future collaboration.
FORMAT FOR FIRST SCIENCE TEAM MEETING:
To provide an opportunity for all members of the team to learn about individual projects and how they can be integrated into a collaborative effort the following approach has been taken:
1. ABSTRACTS: Each of the team members have been asked to provide via e-mail an abstract of their investigation. The abstract should clearly summarize the objective of the investigation, existing/desirable input information or data, and the expected output of the investigation. A statement should also be included as to how the investigation may contribute to the science team objective of improving our understanding of aerosol radiative forcing and in creating a global aerosol climatology. These abstracts will be available on the GACP web site before the science team meeting.
2. PRESENTATIONS: Each science team member funded by NASA is asked to give a 10 minute presentation on their investigation. The presentation should include a clear and concise statement of the objective of their investigation, data/information required, approach, and expected output. The presentation should also indicate how the output may contribute to the overall science objective and the schedule. The presentation should last 6 - 7 minutes, allowing 3 - 4 minutes for discussion. The goal of these short presentations is to identify the individuals and their investigations for future discussions and for potential future collaboration.
3. POSTERS: Team members who are not funded by NASA are invited to prepare a poster presentation of their investigations. These poster presentations should include the information outlined in 2 and should stress the contribution of their research to the overall science objective of the team. These collaborators should indicate their planned schedules.
4. REQUIREMENTS FOR AN AEROSOL CLIMATOLOGY: A plenary session is planned to precede the more focused discussion of team level collaborative efforts, to address and discuss the "user" requirements for an aerosol climatology. More specifically, this session will address the needs and hopes related to aerosol parameterizations in radiative transfer (direct radiative forcing) and the cloud physics parts of climate models (indirect radiative forcing).
5. PARALLEL DISCUSSION SESSIONS: To identify and plan for collaborative efforts amongst team members a sequence of four discussion sessions are planned. Due to schedule and logistical constraints, two of these discussion "break out" sessions will be conducted at a time for approximately 90 minutes. It is apparent that to allow adequate development of the topic would require one-half day at a minimum. However, it is hoped that with focus and discipline progress will be made and that these sessions will initiate more quantitative discussion to be conducted via the internet. Moderators/rapporteurs have been identified for each of these discussion sessions. The moderators/rapporteurs will initiate discussion by summarizing (in 15 minutes) the input information requirements, the expected output and the potential contribution to be made by each of the investigations in that sub-topic area. The moderator/ rapporteurs (or a designate) should also outline data sets available in their sub-topic area (if they have not already been identified in the summary). This may require preparatory work by the moderators/rapporteurs in advance of the meeting. The moderators/ rapporteurs should keep notes during the break-out session for later reporting.
6. PARALLEL DISCUSSION SESSION TOPICS AND KEY QUESTIONS:
DISCUSSION SESSION A. Strategy for the development and use of algorithms for satellite retrieval of aerosol parameters and development of an aerosol climatology
* How might we refine the AVHRR algorithm being used for near-term and retrospective satellite constraints on aerosol column optical depth? How can we merge other satellite measurements into this climatology. This session could conclude with a draft list of ideas for modifications to the current algorithms, or for additional ways to place error bars (to validate) the results.
DISCUSSION SESSION B. Strategy for the use of aerosol source data, transport models, and satellite data for the development of an integrated aerosol climatology (including source characterization / chemical, physical and radiative transformations/ transport)
* In what specific areas do aerosol transport models promise to contribute the most to filling in gaps in the satellite and in situ records of aerosol amounts and properties? This session could conclude with a draft list of suggestions for additional model runs, or ideas for modifications to current transport models.
DISCUSSION SESSION C. Strategy for use of surface, in situ, and field experiment measurements to give additional constraint to the aerosol measurements and for validation of derived aerosol climatology. Strategy to separate constraints from validation to avoid compromising integrity of validation.
* Which specific in situ and field measurements could add the most to the global, but poorly-constrained, picture of aerosol amounts and properties provided by current and near-future satellite observations? This session could conclude with a draft list of ideas for additional in situ and field measurements, or for modifications to current and planned measurement programs to better complement satellite observations.
* How might we approach the statistical issues related to using in situ and field data to improve the constraints on aerosols provided by satellite observations?
DISCUSSION SESSION D. Can we assess the global indirect forcing in our lifetime with error bars smaller than the mean. Strategy for study of cloud / aerosol interactions. Does the strategy require a focused field experiment which may be beyond this project?
* What can we say about indirect aerosol forcing, using models along with satellite, in situ, field, and laboratory measurements? This session could conclude with a draft list of the specific contributions each source could make, perhaps with some ideas about coordination, refinements to existing techniques, or new approaches.
7. SUMMARY SESSIONS: In plenary, the rapporteurs from the four parallel discussion sessions will present the approach adopted to develop their session topics. They will mention any conclusions reached and outline the points to be included in their development of a short written topical report to be prepared following the science team meeting. The schedule for these reports will be discussed at the meeting but is expected to be available no later than 31 December 1998. These reports will become part of the documented products from this first science team meeting and will reside in the GACP web page.
8. FINAL PLENARY DISCUSSION SESSION: The goal of this discussion is to gather the ideas from the previous 2 days and the collected wisdom of the team to address the question: "What is the best climatology we can aspire to in the near future, based on existing observations and models, possibly with modest additions or improvements?
9. BUSINESS DISCUSSION: The meeting will conclude with a discussion of the structure of the science team, leadership, date and location of the second science team meeting.
FIRST MEETING OF THE SCIENCE TEAM TO STUDY AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING OF CLIMATE
AGENDA
WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER
9:00 AM PLENARY SESSION 1: INTRODUCTION
9:00 AM INTRODUCTION OF SCIENCE TEAM,
US & INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATORS;
DESCRIPTION OF THE GLOBAL AEROSOL
CLIMATOLOGY PROJECT (GACP); RELATIONSHIP
TO OTHER US & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES,
GOALS & APPROACH OF THE TEAM (Curran)
9:25 AM OVERVIEW OF GACP PROCESSING FACILITY & ITS REMOTE
SENSING COMPONENT (Mishchenko)
9:40 AM GACP PROCESSING FACILITY: TRACER
MODEL COMPONENT (Tegen)
9:50 AM RELEVANT RESEARCH SPONSORED BY OTHER US AGENCIES
10:10 AM COFFEE BREAK
10:40 AM PLENARY SESSION 2: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SUMMARIES
(Chairperson: McCormick)
10:40 AM Durkee
10:50 AM Remer/Kaufman
11:00 AM Randall
11:10 AM Reagan
11:20 PM Winker
11:30 PM Liou
11:40 PM Stowe
11:50 PM Torres
12:00 NOON LUNCH BREAK
1:40 PM PLENARY SESSION 3: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SUMMARIES
(Chairperson: Levy)
1:40 PM Hobbs
1:50 PM Ogren
2:00 PM Fuller
2:10 PM Prospero
2:20 PM Novakov
2:30 PM Covert
2:40 PM Bates
2:50 PM Clarke
3:00 PM COFFEE BREAK
3:30 PM PLENARY SESSION 4 INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SUMMARIES
(Chairperson: Li)
3:30 PM Han
3:40 PM Russell
3:50 PM Harshvardhan
4:00 PM Coakley
4:10 PM Stackhouse
4:20 PM Charlock
4:30 PM Pilewskie
4:40 PM Tsay
4:50 PM SESSIONS END FOR THE DAY
THURSDAY 19 NOVEMBER
8:30 AM PLENARY SESSION 5: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT SUMMARIES
(Chairperson: Benedict)
8:30 AM Kukla
8:40 AM Chou
8:50 AM Christopher
9:00 AM Del Genio
9:10 PM Penner
9:20 AM Toon
9:30 AM Chuang
9:40 AM Chin
9:40 AM COFFEE BREAK
10:00 AM PLENARY SESSION 6: INTRODUCTION TO DISCUSSION SESSIONS
WHAT GLOBAL AEROSOL CLIMATOLOGY IS NEEDED
FOR CLIMATE MODELING (Invited Speakers: Hansen
and Del Genio)
11:30 AM LUNCH BREAK
1:00 PM PARALLEL DISCUSSION SESSIONS
DISCUSSION SESSION A: DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF
SATELLITE RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS
(Moderators/Rapporteurs: Kahn and Durkee)
DISCUSSION SESSION B: USE OF TRANSPORT
MODELING IN INTEGRATED CLIMATOLOGIES
(Moderators/Rapporteurs: Penner and Chuang)
2:20 PM COFFEE BREAK
2:50 PM PARALLEL DISCUSSION SESSIONS
DISCUSSION SESSION C: SURFACE, IN SITU, AND FIELD
EXPERIMENTS: VALIDATION AND CONSTRAINTS
(Moderators/Rapporteurs: Holben and Ogren)
DISCUSSION SESSION D: INDIRECT AEROSOL FORCING:
WHAT CAN DE DONE ABOUT IT
(Moderators/Rapporteurs: Hobbs and Rossow)
4:10 PM RECEPTION/POSTER SESSION (Chairperson: Curran)
6:00 PM SESSIONS END FOR THE DAY
FRIDAY 20 NOVEMBER
8:00 AM SUMMARY SESSION 1: SUMMARIES OF DISCUSSION SESSIONS
A AND B (Chairpersons: Durkee and Chuang)
9:00 AM COFFEE BREAK
9:20 AM SUMMARY SESSION 2: SUMMARIES OF DISCUSSION SESSIONS
C AND D (Chairpersons: Ogren and Rossow)
10:20 AM COFFEE BREAK
10:40 AM SUMMARY SESSION 3: TOWARD AN ADVANCED CLIMATOLOGY
OF AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING
(Moderators: Hansen and Russell)
11:40 AM BUSINESS SESSION (TEAM STRUCTURE & NEXT MEETING)
(Chairperson: Curran)
1:00 PM MEETING ENDS
Dr. Robert J. Curran,
Office of Earth Science, NASA HQ
Fax: (202) 358-2770
E-mail: rcurran@hq.nasa.gov
Phone: (202) 358-1432
