Topics : Expeditions

Staging a Field Campaign

NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory plays a major role in planning, organizing and supporting expeditions for atmospheric and Earth system researchers around the globe. EOL experts ensure that field programs come off smoothly, despite the challenges of working in remote locations.

The planning stage includes identifying scientific goals and the best tools to take into the field to achieve them. Next comes site selection, including sometimes delicate negotiations with governments and agencies to provide diplomatic clearance, approvals to enter airspace or national waters, air traffic control, and site security. The EOL team also works with contractors to prepare the site, which may need specialized laboratories along with infrastructure for communications and information management.

Once a field campaign is under way, there are plenty of operations and logistics to coordinate. For example, the ACE-Asia campaign involved 130 researchers from nine countries, plus two research vessels, four research aircraft, a half-dozen satellites, and a large assembly of ground-based networks of lidars (laser-based radars) and other instruments. EOL staff help coordinate operations and communications for projects of all sizes so the scientists can concentrate on their observations.

Large field campaigns produce large amounts of data, and EOL has developed methods of handling the steady stream of observations in the field, including online field data catalogs and software allowing researchers to integrate new data into their computer models in real time.

Data management is not over when the researchers return from the field. The EOL data archive and dissemination system provides researchers with Internet access to the wealth of data collected during research expeditions.

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