From May 17 through July 16, 2002, the Cibola National Forest, where Langmuir Laboratory is situated, was closed to entry due to severe fire danger. As of late July all fire restrictions have been lifted.
A few local investigators have been able to continue projects 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 near South Baldy Peak remains closed to motor vehicle traffic. No personnel are 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 area is always open to visitors on foot.
The continuing projects during the summer of 2002 are described below.
Time-of-Arrival Lightning Mapping System
The lightning mapping array (LMA) used in the STEPS program
in 2000 has not been fully deployed this summer, but a combination
of some of those original instruments and a smaller more portable
version that uses solar power and batteries is being
tested in the vicinity of Langmuir Laboratory by Bill Rison,
Bill
Winn and Steve Hunyady. Instruments are deployed near Highway 60,
in Magdalena, in Socorro, and in the forest around the Laboratory where
AC power is not available. More details about this summer's LMA activity
are in the section, below, and in a recent National Geographic article.
You can learn about how the array works and see results from previous
years at 3D Lightning Mapping System.
Undergraduate students are working in the laboratory on campus this
summer to design and develop instruments for studying thunderstorms.
A lightweight, solar- and battery-powered version of the Lightning Mapping
Array has been designed and deployed in several sites around the
Laboratory along with older units from the LMA system used in STEPS
(described above).
Nicole Ramig has been producing figures that superimpose radar
reflectivity and sources of radiation from lightning (from the Lightning
Mapping Array) in order to understand electric field records at the
ground. Recently she has started looking into the availability of NASA's
satellite images of lightning activity over Langmuir Laboratory.
Mitch Davidson and Andrew Martin have been helping with
the construction of the solar-powered lightning mapping array stations.
In particular, they have been studying the suitability of various
combinations of solar panels and batteries.
[These activities are funded in part by NSF Grant
ATM 0070934 and the New Mexico
Space Grant Consortium .]
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 are also 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 a 2000 press release reported that blunt rods performed
better than traditional sharp lightning rods in this study. 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.)
David Baird is designing electronic circuits for a low-cost, low-power
electric field meter.
John Battles is designing an electric field meter to replace
the very old upward-facing field mills that have been used at Langmuir
Laboratory since around 1970. They must function properly when rain falls
onto them. (Read more about the E100 field mills.)
Jon Carmignani is writing Java programs so that electric field data
can be observed using a web browser (soon to be linked here).
[Funded in part
by the NM Space Grant
Consortium.]
Testing continued 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 is 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.]
Biogenic Emissions - Mid-June through mid-July
A weather station at Microphone Hill records half-hour averages
of wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, TH index, barometric
pressure, wind chill, and precipitation. Planning is in progress for
making the data available on-line. Sampling of precipitation and
continuous monitoring for O3 and NOx will continue, as well as sampling
for hydrocarbons of various kinds. 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. The
forest closure from mid-May through mid-July in 2002 prevented Summer from
being able to visit her site, but Langmuir Lab staff who were able to
enter the forest took some photos.
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. Forest fires in the
southwest this summer contribute significantly to the particle load.
They will also continue with trapping and analyzing gases such as the
lighter terpenes to look at composition changes due to electrical
activity. Airborne mercury analysis will also continue.
Astronomy / Magdalena Ridge Observatory - June through August
Planning for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory continues. For
up-to-date information, see the main MRO web site, a press release about the 8/20/02
unveiling ceremony, an October 1999 press release, the NMT Physics
Department's MRO page, and Astronomy Magazine's informative article on
the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.
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 31 July 2002 by kieft@nmt.edu.