SPLASH Campaign also featured in issue
In its December 2024 print issue, the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) spotlighted the recent Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign conducted in Colorado by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility.
DOE’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program supported campaign scientists.
The cover photo, taken by scientist Gijs de Boer in March 2022, features uncrewed aerial system pilot Jonathan Hamilton wearing an ARM-branded beanie at the snow-covered Kettle Ponds site. In the photo, Hamilton looks at data from a rotary-wing HELiX hexacopter while ground-based instruments collect measurements nearby for NOAA’s Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology (SPLASH).
Led by de Boer, SPLASH ran in conjunction with the SAIL campaign, which operated from September 2021 to June 2023 in the East River Watershed near Crested Butte. Scientists are using data from SAIL, SPLASH, and other partner campaigns and projects in the region to improve understanding and modeling of processes that affect mountain hydrology.
In that vein, the BAMS cover features the words “Mile Highdrology” and “SPLASH and SAIL Tackle Challenges of the Upper Colorado River Watershed” underneath.
Hamilton, an associate scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, was on the SPLASH team. Data collected by the HELiX provided details on the spatial distribution of surface reflectivity and surface characteristics during spring melt.
The issue features abridged versions of previously published SAIL and SPLASH campaign overview papers. BAMS published both papers early online in 2023.
Learn more about both campaigns in ARM’s June 2024 article looking back at SAIL a year after operations ended.
# # #This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, through the Biological and Environmental Research program as part of the Atmospheric System Research program.