Overview of the Manitou Experimental Forest Observatory: site description and selected science results from 2008 to 2013

摘要

The Bio-hydro-atmosphere interactions of Energy, Aerosols, Carbon, H₂O,Organics & Nitrogen (BEACHON) project seeks to understand the feedbacksand inter-relationships between hydrology, biogenic emissions, carbonassimilation, aerosol properties, clouds and associated feedbacks withinwater-limited ecosystems. The Manitou Experimental Forest Observatory (MEFO)was established in 2008 by the National Center for Atmospheric Research toaddress many of the BEACHON research objectives, and it now provides a fixedfield site with significant infrastructure. MEFO is a mountainous, semi-aridponderosa pine-dominated forest site that is normally dominated by cleancontinental air but is periodically influenced by anthropogenic sourcesfrom Colorado Front Range cities. This article summarizes the past andongoing research activities at the site, and highlights some of thesignificant findings that have resulted from these measurements. Theseactivities include- soil property measurements;- hydrological studies;- measurements of high-frequency turbulence parameters;- eddy covariance flux measurements of water, energy, aerosols and carbon dioxide through the canopy;- determination of biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compound emissions and their influence on regional atmospheric chemistry;- aerosol number and mass distributions;- chemical speciation of aerosol particles;- characterization of ice and cloud condensation nuclei;- trace gas measurements; and- model simulations using coupled chemistry and meteorology.In addition to various long-term continuous measurements, three focusedmeasurement campaigns with state-of-the-art instrumentation have taken placesince the site was established, and two of these studies are the subjects ofthis special issue: BEACHON-ROCS (Rocky Mountain Organic Carbon Study, 2010)and BEACHON-RoMBAS (Rocky Mountain Biogenic Aerosol Study, 2011).