Three awardees plan to use data from the ASR-supported Bankhead National Forest observatory in Alabama
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has announced the selection of 91 scientists to receive 2024 Early Career Research Program awards. In total, awardees will receive a combined $138 million in funding for research covering a wide range of topics that fall within the scope of the Office of Science’s eight major program areas.
Established over a decade ago, the highly competitive program is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during their early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.
The early career research grants cover salaries and research expenses over five years. Researchers at DOE national laboratories or Office of Science user facilities will receive about $2.75 million total over five years. University-based researchers will receive about $875,000 total over five years. This year, 62 recipients are from U.S. universities, and 29 are from DOE national laboratories.
The following three awardees were selected for funding by the Biological and Environmental Research program. They plan to study Southeast U.S. atmospheric processes using data from the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatory, which will open this fall in northwestern Alabama. With these new projects, all three are joining DOE’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) science team.
Nathaniel Chaney
Chaney, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University in North Carolina, will examine the role of kilometer-scale surface thermal heterogeneity in the development of secondary circulations over the BNF by using modeling and observations.
When thermal heterogeneity over land is sufficiently pronounced and organized, it can drive the development of secondary circulations and affect boundary-layer and cloud development. The realization that these secondary circulations can play a larger role than expected in the Earth’s climate system is driving a push to improve the subgrid heterogeneous land-atmosphere coupling in earth system models. As new coupling parameterizations emerge, there is a need to improve understanding of these circulations and measure them to evaluate the new approaches being explored in land-atmosphere coupled models.
The BNF provides a unique opportunity to address this need, as northwestern Alabama’s climate and environment are favorable for locally driven shallow cumulus clouds. In addition, the BNF’s Doppler lidar network will make it possible to observe the circulations.
Gavin Cornwell
Cornwell, an earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington state, will work to better understand the factors controlling the emission of biological aerosol particles, or bioparticles, that act as ice-nucleating particles (INPs). Such particles lead to the formation of ice within clouds.
The contribution of biologically derived materials to INPs has been understudied, in part because of their low concentrations in the atmosphere. However, bioparticles are very active at high temperatures. This ice nucleation activity at relatively warm (for ice) temperatures makes them both influential and unique. Bioparticles are thought to play a major role in cloud freezing in some regions. Despite their known activity, the factors controlling the emissions of bioparticles are not well understood and generally not represented in atmospheric models.
Cornwell’s project will take a three-part approach to understanding bioparticle emissions. He will combine BNF and laboratory measurements with machine learning tools to generate data sets that describe the types and concentrations of bioparticles in the atmosphere as well as INP concentrations. These data sets will allow researchers to identify the factors controlling particle emissions, leading to better representations of INPs in models.
Read more about Cornwell in this PNNL news release.
Sara Shamekh
Shamekh, an assistant professor of mathematics and atmospheric/ocean science at New York University, seeks to improve understanding and modeling of the transition from shallow to deep convection.
Moist convection, a key component in cloud formation, precipitation, and energy transport, undergoes several stages, evolving from shallow clouds to deep precipitating convection. Accurately modeling this transition requires understanding the complex interplay of multiple factors, such as the atmospheric thermodynamic state and updraft characteristics.
Shamekh’s project aims to address these challenges in modeling deep convection transition by using BNF data on the land surface, planetary boundary layer, and lower free troposphere. Shamekh and her research team will employ advanced machine learning techniques to preprocess these data and develop models that quantify the factors contributing to the transition from shallow to deep convection.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for the DOE Early Career Research Program award, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility who received a PhD within the past 10 years (12 years for the 2024 Early Career Research Program).
A list of all the award recipients can be found on the Early Career Research Program web page.
Scientist photos are courtesy of the researchers and their institutions.
# # #This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research program as part of the Atmospheric System Research program.