For the second year in a row (and the second year in its history) Langmuir Laboratory is not open during the summer thunderstorm research season. Most of the investigators who work on projects at the Lab were involved in the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) held in the Midwestern US last summer. The task of coordinating and analyzing the variety of complex data that were collected during STEPS is keeping many of those researchers too busy in 2001 to be able to spend more time in the field.
A few local investigators are continuing their long-standing projects at the Lab that rely on instruments and collection devices that do not require daily attention. There are no full-time residents in the buildings and the gate will remain locked. There are no personnel available to conduct tours or greet visitors, and this is not a good summer for media and journalists to produce programs and articles about the Laboratory.
The continuing projects during the summer of 2001 are described below.
Time-of-Arrival Lightning Mapping System - (Not deployed in 2001)
The lightning mapping instrument array (LMA) has not been deployed this
summer because its designers are writing up the results of last summer's
STEPS field program. You can learn about the instrument and its use
at the web sites that are linked to the Summer
2000 activities page.
Undergraduate students are working in the laboratory on campus this
summer to design and develop instruments for studying thunderstorms.
Joseph Allen is designing an LMA transmitter for the telemetry of data
from balloon-borne instrument packages using radiosondes. He is also
building a modified version of Tech's electric field monitor suitable
for flying from balloons in coordination with operation of the LMA.
David Baird is developing an improved version of the LMA receiver
that is solar-powered, light weight, and small enough to be deployed
by carrying it into rugged terrain. Nicole Ramig is developing a
temperature-monitoring system for the solar-powered LMA, and is using
Matlab to analyze data collected in previous years.
Adam Searle is using the Java language to write user-interface
programs for looking at the Laboratory's real-time and historic data from
the internet using a standard browser such as Netscape. Michael Baldwin
is developing analytical methods for data collected with the Langmuir
Lab radar, the LMA, aircraft, and balloon-borne instruments.
[These activities are funded in part by NSF Grant
ATM 0070934 and the New Mexico
Space Grant Consortium .] Testing continues this summer with balloon flights from Norman,
Oklahoma, of an instrument that can record changes in
electric field and x-ray or gamma emissions at altitudes up to and
above the tops of storms. It will be used to test hypotheses for the
production of transient luminous events, such as red sprites and
blue jets. These events have been observed in the middle atmosphere
above thunderstorms. In collaboration with scientists at Los Alamos
National Lab and the National Severe Storms Lab, this team hopes to
gain a new understanding of lightning discharge processes, the role
of runaway electron processes in initiation of discharges, and the
development of lightning leaders. [Funded in part by NSF Grant ATM
0075730.] [NOTE: This project suffered a setback when the NSSL
Balloon Barn and its contents were destroyed by fire the evening of 7/3/01.]
Lightning Rods - June through August
Pairs of sharp and blunt lightning rods on 20-foot masts
are arranged around the Kiva on South Baldy Peak to study their
responses when lightning strikes. Other types of
commercially-available air terminals may also be installed to
examine their effectiveness. High-speed digitizers measure currents
flowing during both naturally-occurring lightning and triggered
lightning events. Recent results have been published in
Geophysical Research Letters,and JAM
and there was a press
release reporting that blunt rods performed better than traditional
sharp lightning rods in this study. Biogenic Emissions - Mid-June through mid-July
This continuing study examines biogenic emissions from local
vegetation that may contribute to the production of ozone, such as
hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, and ketones. Emissions are quantified
from
ponderosa pines in the Laboratory area, as well as cottonwood
trees in the Rio Grande valley, to examine seasonal distributions.
Ecological Studies - June through August
Biologists with the Long Term Ecological Research program at the
Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico continue to
look at various plant, rodent, and arthropod populations at sites in the
vicinity of Langmuir Lab, and will continue to operate a meteorological
data station at the Lab. They are also analyzing population fluctuations
in mammals for possible correlation with broad climatic data. (See the
UNM Sevilleta LTER informational
pages.) Claret-cup Cactus Study - June through August
Claret-cup cactus is unusual in that it contains populations of
hermaphroditic plants in the center of the range, but is dioecious
(separate sexes) on the edges of its range. Colonies near Langmuir Lab
appear to be hermaphroditic. Summer is testing two theories that may
explain reasons for the evolution of separate sexes in these plants. She
will combine field experiments, analysis of allozyme protein from small
samples of cactus skin, and a GIS database of information from 20
populations throughout the geographic range of Claret-cup cactus.
Astronomy / Magdalena Ridge Observatory - June through August
Planning for the Magdalena
Ridge Observatory continues. This summer the Environmental
Assessment for the whole MRO project will be written. Turbulence monitors
will be operated from a tower near the observatory building, and a 14"
telescope on a tripod will be used. Some stakes will be put into the
ground to show where the telescopes will be located. (See the the October 1999
press release for information, as well as the Physics Department's MRO page.) Hydrocarbon Measurements - June through August
Chemists will use the trailer at West Knoll as their base to collect
particulates using high volume samplers with quartz filters to analyze to
organics, inorganics, and radioactivity. The samples are used for
background and for changes due to forest fires, etc., in collaboration
with other groups. They also are collecting and analyzing mercury using
silver wool traps. They have noticed that mercury spikes may correlate
with rain gushes or electrical activity. They continue analyzing for NOx
and ozone, and for gas phase organics caused by electrical discharges. Lightning Warning System - June through August
The electric field monitoring system at the Laboratory is
being reprogrammed to work under the Linux operating system,
and a low-cost electric field meter is being designed.
The monitoring system helps determine when lightning is likely
to occur naturally or when it can be triggered by firing small
rockets into the cloud overhead (although no triggering is
planned for this summer). (Read more about triggering lightning here.) [Funded in part
by the NM Space Grant
Consortium.]
Thundercloud Electrification Studies - Instrument Design & Data
Analysis - June through August
Gamma Emissions and Electric-Field Changes in and above
Thunderstorms - June and July
Last updated 07 December 2001 by kieft@nmt.edu.