Aerosol and Chemical Transport in Tropical Convection (ACTIVE)

ACTIVE ("Aerosol and chemical transport in tropical convection") was a NERC-funded consortium project combining field measurements and a range of modeling tools at different scales to address questions related to the composition of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), that is, the upper tropical troposphere.

Field measurements were conducted in Darwin, Australia in two phases: November-December 2005 (pre-monsoon convection), in collaboration with the SCOUT-O3 project funded by the European Commission, and January-February 2006 (monsoon convection), in collaboration with the US/Australian TWPICE project.

ACTIVE utilised the Australian Egrett aircraft operated by ARA and the NERC Dornier 228 operated by the British ARSF to measure chemical species and aerosol in the inflow and outflow of tropical storms. Cloud-scale and large-scale modelling studies assisted in the interpretation of the measurements to distinguish the different contributions to the TTL composition.

Institutions involved in ACTIVE include

• The University of Manchester, UK.
• The University of Cambridge, UK.
• The University of Wales at Aberystwyth, UK.
• The University of York, UK.
• The Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany.
• The Forschungzentrum Jülich (FZJ), Germany.
• The York University, Canada.
• The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), Australia.
• The Airborne Research, Australia (ARA).

ACTIVE data are stored in either NetCDF or NASA Ames format. File names follow the BADC file name convention.

This dataset is public and can be accessed here ACTIVE archive.

1. The ACTIVE PI should be informed if ACTIVE data is used in any research study.
2. Any publication or communication based on or using ACTIVE data should duly acknowledge the ACTIVE investigators responsible for the measurements.

ACTIVE data are stored in either NetCDF or NASA Ames format. File names follow the BADC file name convention.

• ACTIVE data file uploader (Access to the ACTIVE group is required - Apply).
• Information on NASA-Ames data and metadata format (including time variable) and the BADC NASA-Ames file checker
• Information on NetCDF format and CF metadata conventions and the NetCDF file checker
• An online workspace has been created for the ACTIVE participants in order to ease coordination and exchange of views, information and preliminary data. The workspace is only accessible to the ACTIVE participants who have been invited. If you are an ACTIVE scientist and have not been invited to access the workspace, please contact the BADC Helpdesk.

Data Archive

Data and documentation supplied to the BADC by the project teams are stored in the ACTIVE archive. This contains:

• field campaign data from
  • the two aircrafts
  • ozonesondes

• ACTIVE website at the University of Manchester.
• ACTIVE Flight Summaries maintained at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology(BOM) by Grant Allen, Manchester. This is a password protected website. To apply for access to this site, please contact Grant Allen.
• Airborne Research Australia (ARA),Flinders University.
• ARA aircrafts,including the G520T Egrett.
• The British Airborne Research & Survey Facility (ARSF).
• The ARSF Dornier 228-101 research aircraft.
• Stratospheric-Climate Links with Emphasis on the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (SCOUT-O3) website at the Ozone Research Coordinating Unit (EORCU) in Cambridge.
• The Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWPICE) website at the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology.
• ACTIVE Data Protocol Conditions of Use of ACTIVE data.
• The BADC File Name Convention, the list of Standard Instrument Names, and Metadata guidelines

Publications

• P. T. May, J. H. Mather, G. Vaughan, C. Jakob, G. M. McFarquhar, K. N. Bower, and G. G. Mace. The Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWPICE). Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 632 - 645, 89, 2008
• G. Vaughan, C. Schiller, A. R. MacKenzie, K. Bower, T. Peter, H. Schlager, N. R. P. Harris and P. T. May. Studies in a natural laboratory: High-altitude aircraft measurements around deep tropical convection. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 89, 647 - 662, 2008.
• Allen, G., Vaughan, G., Bower, K., et al.: Aerosol and trace-gas measurements in the Darwin area during the wet season, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D06306, doi:10.1029/2007JD008706.

Copies of these papers are also available from the authors. See ACTIVE website

Natural Environment Research Council, [Vaughan, G.] . Aerosol and Chemical Transport in Tropical Convection (ACTIVE), [Internet] NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre, 2005-, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/badc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__dataent_active.

• The ACTIVE Principal Investigator is Geraint Vaughan(University of Manchester).
• Any query regarding the data should be sent to the BADC help desk.