Atmospheric System Research

The Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving applications to develop innovative laboratory and observational data analyses and to utilize the resulting knowledge from such analyses to improve cloud and aerosol formulations in global climate models. The intent is to improve the understanding and modeling of cloud and aerosol properties and processes and their impact on the atmospheric radiation balance. The research areas of interest include the development or improvement of algorithms for retrieving the required atmospheric parameters from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) instruments; alternatively, developing instrument simulators to facilitate more accurate intercomparison of measurements with modeling data; studies utilizing ARM data and Atmospheric Science Program (ASP) measurements to improve the understanding of c loud, aerosol, and radiation physical processes; and, the translation of process study results to improve or develop formulations for the respective processes to improve climate model simulations. If the application is successful, the research would be part of the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Program in the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD). The ASR Program was established in FY2010 by merger of the former ARM Science Program and the ASP; it is one of several DOE programs in the interagency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The mission of ASR http://asr.science.energy.gov/, in partnership with the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF), is to quantify the interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, radiation, dynamics, and thermodynamics to improve fundamental process-level understanding, with the ultimate goal to reduce the uncertainty in global climate simulations and projections.