Cadenza participation in Atmospheric Brown Cloud Post Monsoon Experiment (APMEX)
About 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia. This area has witnessed impressive
economic growth in recent years. Unfortunately, this growth has been accompanied by a
large increase in air pollution resulting from biomass burning and industrial emissions.
The effects of this pollution include a direct reduction of solar radiation reaching the
surface that is accompanied by a 50% increase of heating in the lower levels of the
atmosphere, suppression of rainfall, reduction of agricultural productivity and adverse
health effects. These far reaching environmental effects have raised major questions
about the sustainability of rapid development in this area.
October is a month of transition in this area when winds shift from the southeasterly
(bringing monsoon rains from S. Asia) to northeasterly, bring aerosol from much of S.
and SE. Asia in to the N. Indian Ocean. The main goal of APMEX, a follow-on to the
successful INDOEX campaign, is to make intensive measurements during this important
transition period to gain insights into how we, as humans, are impacting our planet. This
period is also the kick off of a new super-site in the Maldives, the Hanimaadhoo Climate
Observatory (HCO) and UAV observations.
Participants in this experiment include NOAA, NASA, the United Nations Environmental Programme, World Meteorological Organization and researchers from the USA, China, Japan, India, Korea, Germany, Sweden, the Republic of the Maldives and many more countries. Our instrument, Cadenza, is located at the HCO supersite which is a first-class facility for environmental monitoring. The goals of our participation are to provide realtime measurements of aerosol extinction, scattering, and absorption coefficients, and single-scattering albedo which have important implications for climate. The Hanimaadhoo Climate Observatory and our instrument, Cadenza, are pictured below.