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| ACE-Asia | |
|---|---|
| Name | ACE-Asia |
| Caption | Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Experiment |
| Dates | March–May 2001 |
| Location | East Asia, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, North Pacific |
| Organizers | National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan), Korea Meteorological Administration, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Participants | international aerosol, atmospheric chemistry, and climate research teams |
ACE-Asia The Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Experiment (ACE-Asia) was a coordinated multinational field campaign in spring 2001 focused on aerosols, air quality, and radiative forcing over East Asia and the western North Pacific. It brought together teams from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Korea Meteorological Administration, University of Tokyo, and other institutions to study aerosol composition, transport, and climate impacts. The program linked airborne measurements, shipboard observations, surface networks, and satellite remote sensing to advance understanding of atmospheric processes affecting East Asia and downwind regions.
ACE-Asia aimed to quantify aerosol sources, transformation, transport, and radiative effects associated with rapid industrialization and natural emissions in East Asia, including contributions from Siberia, Mongolia, Loess Plateau, Taklamakan Desert, and coastal urban centers such as Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Goals included improving aerosol optical property retrievals for satellites such as Terra (satellite), Aqua (satellite), and NOAA-15, validating chemical transport models like GEOS-Chem and MATCH, and constraining aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing in climate models including GISS ModelE and NCAR CESM. Collaborating observatories and programs included AERONET, GACP, EMEP, PHOTONS, SONET, and national monitoring networks from Japan Meteorological Agency and China Meteorological Administration.
ACE-Asia integrated platforms such as research aircraft NASA P-3B Orion, NOAA P-3, and regional aircraft from JAXA, oceanographic vessels including R/V Ronald H. Brown and R/V Seward Johnson, and land sites like Gosan Research Station on Jeju Island and observatories at Mt. Fuji and Hedo Point. Key instruments included aerosol mass spectrometers from Aerodyne Research, nephelometers and aethalometers from Thermo Fisher Scientific, sunphotometers from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center supporting AERONET, lidars from NOAA ESRL, and airborne chemical ionization mass spectrometers tied to groups at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Washington, and Pusan National University. Satellite coordination involved MODIS, MISR, TOMS, SeaWiFS, and absorption retrievals from GLAS. Radiative flux observations and cloud microphysics measurements linked with cloud probes developed by Droplet Measurement Technologies and aerosol-cloud interaction studies by groups including Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Field operations occurred principally between March and May 2001, with intensive observation periods timed to capture spring dust storms from Gobi Desert, biomass burning events in Southeast Asia and Siberia, and industrial plumes from megacities. Flight campaigns executed coordinated sorties between P-3 Orion flights, ship transects across the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan, and surface sampling at island stations. Campaign logistics involved national agencies such as Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan), Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, and Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, and international coordination through principal investigators from Dalhousie University, University of California, Irvine, Imperial College London, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Data collection phases targeted plumes from events documented by MODIS and trajectory analyses using HYSPLIT and assimilation frameworks from ECMWF and NCEP.
ACE-Asia produced numerous peer-reviewed studies elucidating aerosol composition, optical properties, and climate implications. Findings included characterization of mixed dust-organic-sulfate aerosols over the North Pacific, quantification of black carbon transported from South Korea and China urban areas, and measurements of aerosol hygroscopicity affecting cloud condensation nuclei activity reported by teams at MIT, Harvard University, Purdue University, and University of Colorado Boulder. Results influenced retrieval algorithms for MODIS and MISR and informed assessments by IPCC authors. High-impact publications appeared in journals such as Science, Nature, Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Geophysical Research Letters, and Journal of Climate, authored by multi-institutional consortia including researchers from NOAA, NASA Goddard, PNNL, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Tokyo, and Peking University.
ACE-Asia fostered extensive data synthesis, quality control, and model-data intercomparisons using centralized archives managed by NASA AERONET, BADC, and institutional data centers at UCAR and NCAR. Modeling groups applied regional and global models—WRF-Chem, GOCART, GEOS-Chem, CMAQ, and ECHAM5-HAM—to simulate aerosol transport, optical depth, and radiative forcing, with inputs constrained by chemical speciation measurements from Aerodyne instruments and satellite retrievals. Ensemble studies evaluated sensitivity to emissions inventories from EDGAR, REAS, and national inventories from China National Environmental Monitoring Center. Data assimilation efforts leveraged 4D-Var and ensemble Kalman filter frameworks developed at ECMWF, NCAR, and NASA GMAO to improve aerosol fields in reanalyses.
ACE-Asia informed air quality management and international policy dialogues by providing evidence of transboundary pollution affecting Japan, Korea, and United States territories in the North Pacific. Results fed into bilateral and multilateral discussions among agencies including Ministry of the Environment (Japan), Korea Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (China), and forums such as APEC atmospheric working groups. Scientific outputs supported revisions of regional emission inventories, aided development of satellite-based monitoring by JAXA and CMA, and contributed to climate assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and national climate science programs at NOAA and NASA.
Category:Field experiments in atmospheric science