Research

Science Research Areas

DAS has a wide range of capabilities in the fields of climate, atmospheric sciences and air pollution research. The lists below summarize our principal capabilities in several major categories. Clicking on a major heading will take you to a selected list of research projects in that area.

1. Field Study Design and Coordination
• Air quality program design.
• Quality control/quality assurance.
• Data compilation, validation, analysis and reporting.


2. Ambient Air Quality Monitoring for Criteria and Toxic Pollutants
• Automated sampling for gases and size-resolved aerosol.
• Continuous aerosol mass, size distribution, light absorption, light scattering, light extinction and chemical analysis.
• Measurements of personal exposure to pollutants.
• Visibility/Haze.


3. Pollutant Emissions Characterization
• Real-time and remote sensing of motor vehicle emissions.
• Dilution chamber sampling of stationary source emissions.
• Sampling of fugitive and area source emissions.
• Development of emission factors and inventories for air quality modeling.


4. Chemical Laboratory Analysis
• Inorganic analysis of aerosol mass, filter densitometry, ions, elemental and organic carbon, major and trace elements, and inorganic gases (sulfur dioxide, nitric acid, ammonia).
• Detailed organic analysis for volatile, semi-volatile, and particulate hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitro- and oxy-PAH, polar organic compounds, and carbonyls.


5. Meteorological and Radiative Measurements
• Continuous meteorological parameters (temp., pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed, direction, and flux).
• Surface, column (balloon) and aircraft measurements of atmospheric motion and thermodynamic parameters.
• 3-dimensional flows, cloud and precipitation fields by radar.


6. Aerosol, Clouds and Precipitation Measurement
• Particle size distributions with in-situ microphysical probes, balloon and aircraft mounted videometers.
• Large particles in 3 dimensions using radar.
• Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN).
• Cold and warm cloud droplet, rain and snow chemistry.
• Cloud radiative properties from satellite retrieval and radar measurements.
• Column water vapor concentration using radiometer.


7. Numerical Modeling
• Use of adaptive grid numerical models (i.e., OMEGA) for Sierra Nevada precipitation and air circulation simulations with grids that adapt explicitly to the scale and geometry of the terrain and atmospheric circulation.
• Use of regional scale atmospheric numerical models (including MM5, COAMPS, and RAMS) for studies of air flow, cloud and precipitation formation, and pollutant transport in complex terrain.
• Use of mesoscale cloud-resolving models for studies of cloud and precipitation development.
• Development of models for pollutant transport, and explicit treatment of cloud formation and precipitation.
• Development of microphysical parameterizations for mesoscale models.
• Source apportionment and dispersion modeling for air quality issues.
• Photochemical modeling for air quality and global atmospheric chemistry.
• Light extinction modeling for air quality issues and cloud and aerosol radiative properties.


8. Satellite Meteorology
• Use of satellite radiances to infer atmospheric structure, e.g., temperature, cloud properties, and particle size distribution.
• Development of software to infer cirrus cloud size distributions from satellite radiances.


9. Weather Modification
• Cloud seeding for snowfall enhancement.
• Chemical analysis of snow.


10. Climate Information Services
• Provide climate information to public and private clients.
• Archive climate data for the western U.S.
• Utilize data to explore climate variability issues (e.g., El Niño) and natural resource management.
• Wind energy resource mapping.


11. Wildfire Applications
• Operational decision support tools.
• Fire policy.
• Climate and weather applications.


12. Renewable Energy Research
• Renewable energy resource assessment.
• Environmental impacts of renewable energy systems.
• Production, use, and impacts of renewable fuels.


13. Other Capabilities
• Tools for wildfire and smoke management.
• Development of scientific instruments.
• Engineering support (mechanical, electrical and computer).
• Advice on regulatory issues (NAAQS, SIPs, regional haze, emissions standards, etc.).
• Education/technical training.
• Foreign language skills.
• Computational resources.