RESEARCH THEMES
| Action:2 | Transport and deposition of mineral dust in western southern Africa | |
| French coordinator |
Dr. Paola FORMENTI | LISA, UMR 7583, Créteil |
| SA coordinator |
Prof. Stuart PIKETH | North West University, Potchefstroom |
GDRI-2: 2014-2017 perspectives
| There is a growing interest on mineral dust in Southern Africa therefore we want to maintain this action proceeding by continuing measurements at the Hentjies Bay station. In addition to the current instrumental payload, we will also operate a GRIMM optical counter to yield information on the aerosol size distribution and a streaker sampler to monitor continuously the aerosol composition. This will allow a better apportionment of the different aerosol sources on the long-term.
To extend the scope and the representativeness of our research, we have made contacts with Dr Jost Lavric, PI of the Namib Desert Atmospheric Observatory (NDAO) at the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, to coordinate and integrate our researches. Starting from February 2014, we will install a CIMEL sunphotometer at the NDAO station.
Furthermore, we participate in a consortium with NASA (PI. J. Redemann) and the UK MetOffice (PI. J. Haywood) building a research project on aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in Southern Africa. This consortium is preparing a research project to fund an intensive campaign in October 2016 which will use ground-based and aircraft instrumentation. The long-term measurements conducted in the framework of the GDRI-ARSAIO project will be a precious baseline to put into context the observations of the intensive campaign.
An active search of funding for this very ambitious project has also started.
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