Landing in Chile

A team of Brookhaven Lab atmospheric scientists recently traveled to Chile to study the unique and persistent cloud deck that looms off the coast of the Chilean city of Arica.

Peter Daum, Lawrence Kleinman, Yin-Nan Lee, Art Sedlacek, Gunner Senum, and Stephen Springston spent five weeks in Chile and racked up twenty-six thousand miles during 63 hours of flying time on a research plane studying the properties of cloud droplets. In spite of their heavy workload, they found a bit of spare time to explore and enjoy some of the Chilean culture.

Referring to a region in Chile that looks like a sandbox, Springston said he thinks he and his fellow researchers may have experienced what it's like to be on the dark side of the moon. "Rarely does this area of Chile get more than a drizzle," said Springston. "I think it's a perfect location to study anthropogenic influences on clouds and how such clouds affect climate all over the world. The cloud sits there, yet this region of Chile is probably the driest place on earth."

The cloud deck off the coast of Arica is not well understood. Why does it just sit there reflecting sunlight back in to space? Scientists hope to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon. "With instruments on board that were designed and built at BNL, we were able to look under the cloud, in the cloud, and above the cloud to study its properties," said Springston.

The Gulfstream I used for the study was funded by the Department of Energy and operated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The aircraft was built on Long Island by Grumman.

"After returning to the United States and getting reacquainted with family, friends and colleagues, our real work begins," said Springston. The data for each instrument will be processed by the scientists and then merged with another data set that includes graphics and data from each flight. From this common set of measurements, scientists at Brookhaven and elsewhere will begin to draw insights that may lead to a better understanding of the relationships between clouds and climate.

2009-1009  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom