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October 1994— VOLUME 2, NO. 1
Table of Contents:
ARTICLES
In Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, Ulysses prudently asks Aeolus, the god of the winds, for guidance before embarking on his first voyage. Aeolus, who kept the winds imprisoned in a cave, gives Ulysses a bag containing the winds, with instructions that he not open it without uttering certain words that would release only favorable winds. Ulysses sets forth on his journey only to be thwarted by his crew and their curiosity. While Ulysses sleeps, his crew opens the potent purse, releasing all the winds because they don't know the special invocations. The winds still blow unfettered to this day.
The Greeks named the winds according to the four points of the compass. Boreas, the north wind, and strongest of all the winds in the Homeric legend, shares the compass with his brothers: Zephyr from the west, Notus from the south, and Euros from the east.
Scientists involved in a field research program bearing the name of the mighty north wind want to determine if the northern forests are playing a significant role in the evolution of the climate, both regional and global. BOREAS, the Boreal Ecosystem Atmosphere Study, is a two-year international project in central Canada which uses satellites, aircraft, ground-based observing stations, and computer models to study the relationship between the boreal forest and the atmosphere.
Scientists are presently unable to track the destination of some of the carbon that is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and other gases. Recent studies suggest that the boreal region may be one of the missing "sinks" for this carbon. One question researchers hope to answer with these data is what role the region plays in the global carbon budget. Carbon storage and processing affects our climate. By storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it to make tree trunks, branches, leaves, and roots, forests reduce the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, one of many greenhouse gases. These gases act as a heat blanket that warms the planet, absorbing infrared radiation coming from the surface of the earth that would otherwise escape into space.
Remote and sparsely populated, the Canadian boreal forest separates the prairies of the Great Plains from the tundra of the Arctic. In the western provinces of Canada it extends in a northwest-southeast belt running from Yukon Territory to Ontario. The BOREAS study region covers much of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Two smaller intensive study areas are located within this region on either side of the boreal belt, near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and Thompson, Manitoba. Scientists gathered data from the region during the northern growing season, in May, mid-summer, and early September.
The Electra research aircraft, owned by the National Science Foundation and maintained at an NCAR facility in Colorado, flew between Prince Albert and Thompson, making measurements and collecting air samples. Wind measurements taken from aboard the Electra -- flying as low as 300 feet -- will reveal how trace gases (gases present in tiny concentrations) such as carbon dioxide circulate in the atmosphere and what factors control the exchanges of energy between the boreal forest and the atmosphere. Although scientists sometimes endured the discomfort of turbulence, the data collected from the airplane are invaluable to the project. And their vantage point granted them a view of the landscape on a larger scale than a project limited to ground observations would allow.
One new instrument on the Electra measures the concentrations of trace gases in air parcels moving upward or downward to determine the net transport of carbon by those gases. Another instrument, called a lidar, uses laser beams pointed at the earth's surface to measure atmospheric water vapor and aerosol distributions between flight level and the ground. Because the processes of atmospheric chemistry are tightly linked, the researchers in BOREAS are sampling many kinds of gases. Scientists will analyze the samples to determine the exchange of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, water vapor, and other gases.
In addition to understanding the boreal forest's role as a possible carbon "sink," researchers also want to determine the potential impact of climate change on the region itself. Computer models show that subpolar northern latitudes, those from around 45° to 65° N. could be the region of the earth most affected by a possible global warming due to increased carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Such warming -- which could average as much as 10° C (18° F) in these regions over the next century -- might substantially change the makeup and functioning of the boreal forest. Changes in the forest, in turn, would alter local weather and climate patterns. Studies of the north and south fringes of the forest, where temperature contrasts are the greatest, will help determine what might happen to the forest in a changing climate. Seasonal variations also will be analyzed across the three study periods.
Information gleaned from the data accumulated during BOREAS will be fed into computer models of climate change so that they better represent the earth system. To improve computer models of the global climate, scientists want greater understanding of how small-scale interactions between plants and the atmosphere translate to larger scales. Specialists in plant ecology at BOREAS will be measuring variables such as soil moisture, leaf area, and radiation absorption for regions as small as a single tree. These data will be connected to local measurements of heat and trace gas exchange between the surface and the atmosphere, then extended to progressively larger scales until they are ultimately linked with global satellite data and climate models.
The primary American sponsor of BOREAS is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is collaborating with the Canadian government and many of its agencies. Other major U.S. sponsors include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Once the field studies are completed scientists will analyze the data, a process which can take many years.
Scientists representing the National Center for Atmospheric Research, including Theresa Campos, Al Cooper, Ken Davis, Jim Greenberg, Greg Kok, Don Lenschow, Jakob Mann, Shane Mayor, Steve Oncley, Steve Schillawski, and Steve Shertz, were joined by hundreds of scientists from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in the field project this summer.
Caroline Hanson and Bob Henson
Scientist Ken Davis, one of many researchers involved in the BOREAS project, began his career in science while clambering through gullies and forests near his childhood home in upstate New York. Geology was Ken's first hobby. "One of my nicknames in school was 'Rockhead.' Sometimes I wonder how much soil erosion I contributed to," he says. Ken's present work is on the microscale chemical exchanges between plants and the atmosphere.
By sixth grade Ken had to provide a laundry list when asked what he wanted to do as a grown-up: "I'd mention things like archaeology, geology, paleontology. I was getting interested in astronomy, too, which drew me into physics."
Ken's academic interests continued to evolve through his high school years. "I'd read a lot about astronomy and particle physics -- 'The Story of the Atom,' and so on," he explains. "But the first news event that made an impact on me as a kid was the Arab oil embargos of the 1970s. I started considering plasma physics so I could help build fusion power plants." Once Ken started school at Princeton University, however, "the more I learned about fusion research, the less promising it seemed. I found myself getting turned off by theoretical physics -- it can get so abstract that you lose any sense of physical intuition. That pushed me toward something more applied; then, within the applied, I wanted something with more of a human connection."
Atmospheric science first beckoned when Ken took a summer job at Princeton's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Still interested in astronomy, he hedged his bets by joining the University of Colorado's graduate program in astrophysical, planetary, and atmospheric science. At CU, "they have the whole spectrum. Also, I was becoming interested in climate change, in the sense that I could do something beneficial to society."
Joining NCAR as a graduate researcher Ken Davis feels the strength of Boreas in 1989 took Ken full circle to his days in the forests of New York. "In high school, I was convinced that the only job I'd get in forestry was working as a chemical engineer for a paper company, which didn't sound like fun. Now I' m studying exchanges between forests and the atmosphere." The smile on his face tells the rest.
Bob Henson
ACTIVITY
Look for moss and ivy on trees. Do they only grow on the north sides as legend would have it?
Watch for migrating birds this autumn. Do they always fly north to south?
Research some Native American legends about the north.
Patrick J. Kennedy, Geoscientist at NCAR
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research provides information about global climate change through its Information and Outreach Office. If you would like additional materials on this topic and others related to atmospheric science, please send your requests to Caroline Hanson, Project LEARN, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, or send your request via electronic mail to chanson@ncar.ucar.edu.
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Editor:
Caroline Hanson
Contributors:
Bob Henson, NCAR Outreach and Information Staff;
BOREAS scientists
Scientific
Editor:
Pat Kennedy
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