Turbulence and Carbon in Claremont

Atmospheric chemistry unfolds in real-time and requires us to meaningfully combine models with high-frequency and long-term measurements (so our group will take some of our own measurements, not just build models). Claremont has a long history of taking part in informationally-rich atmospheric measurement campaigns. Our group is setting up a small station to measure energy and greenhouse gas fluxes at the local Bernard Field Station, a small patch of Southern California coastal sage scrub amidst the suburbs. Our local atmosphere is changing significantly due to the ongoing escalation of California fire season and rapid vehicle transitions. Our dataset is both high frequency (up to 50 measurements per second!) and designed to be long-term (we hope to be collecting it for ~30 years!). The long-term data from this project will address climatic and emission shifts and increased fire frequency's effects on California's role as a carbon source or sink. Our goal is to capture a multifaceted picture of carbon cycling from the soil to the atmosphere and validate current satellite observations and climate predictions (there are, surprisingly, few direct measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes in Southern California).

We use an eddy covariance technique to turn observations of turbulence and IR spectroscopy into carbon fluxes (is CO2 going into the plant canopy or coming out?). We also get additional fundamentally interesting and valuable information on the movement of water and energy in the atmosphere and, with enough signal processing, information on the shape of turbulent structures over the field station (this is really cool). While observational data transforms our understanding of atmospheric composition, a massive opportunity exists in harnessing computational models to provide actionable insight into air quality and climate change. The turbulence data we collect will also allow us to build a local scale model of the chemical reactions occurring within and above the plant canopy at the field station.

These measurements are just being set up in the spring of 2024. If you are interested in time series analysis, turbulence, chaotic systems, or measuring greenhouse gas fluxes in a literal field, get in touch!