One-Year Electric Field Study at the North Slope of Alaska Field Campaign Report

• Main Authors: Liu, Chuntao, Lavigne, Thomas
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Arctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Barrow; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1526011; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1526011

The Global Electric Circuit (GEC) of the atmosphere provides a unique prospective of the changing climate around the Earth. Monitoring this global electrical signature provides details of the global nature of electrified clouds and thunderstorms that are occurring. Using this very inexpensive measurement system, we can provide much-needed information about the vast electrical system that surrounds us, as well as gaining an understanding of how the electrical properties of global precipitation systems are changing over time. Prior to the OYESNSA field campaign (http://atmos.tamucc.edu/oyesnsa/; https://www.arm.gov/research/campaigns/nsa2017oyesnsa/), much of the electric field data used to compare to the physical properties of electrified clouds were collected in the Antarctica. With the inclusion of this high-quality data set in the Arctic, it allows for the simultaneous observation of the electric field at both poles. Preliminary results from the One-Year Electric Field Study-North Slope of Alaska (OYESNSA) field campaign already show that the GEC appears to be indeed a truly global phenomenon, with very similar fair-weather observations being taken at both poles. This first six months of data has already been uploaded to the ARM Data Center, and preliminary results have been presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2017 meeting with very positive feedback (http://atmos.tamucc.edu/oyesnsa/AGU_2017_Poster.pdf). The North Slope of Alaska provides a unique location for collecting these electric field measurements. Besides being at the opposite pole from many previous measurements, this site provides a rare opportunity to use the other instruments at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Barrow, Alaska observatory, such as the Ka-band radar, upwardfacing lidar, vertical profile of meteorological measures, and other aerosol measurements. This allows for the unique chance to not only provide information about the global signature of the GEC, but also the ...