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Centre for Atmospheric Science

OP3 Project Measurements

View over a tropical rain forest
South East Asian forest

Dates and Location

The ground based measurements took place over two measurement periods, from 7th April - 4th May, and from 23rd June - 23rd July 2008. These measurements were based at the Bukit Atur Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station (04°58'53"N, 117°50'37"E, elevation 426m) in the Danum Valley Conservation Area, with participating scientists staying at the Danum Valley Field Centre. In addition to the measurements taking place at the GAW tower which is located on a ridge above the forest canopy, in canopy measurements (part of the ACES project) were also taking place at a site apprximately 1Km away. In the break between the two measurement periods, a limited set of measurements were carried out at a palm oil plantation (also part of ACES). During the second measurement period, in addition to the ground based measurements, airborne measurements were also made using the FAAM aircraft based at Kota Kinabalu, between 3rd and 23rd July.

The Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 sq km Class 1 Protection Forest Reserve. About 90% of the Conservation Area is lowland dipterocarp forest with the remainder being sub-montane forest. The dipterocarp canopy exceeds 70 m in height in places. The Conservation Area is surrounded by a 9500 sq km sustainably-managed natural Forest Management Area.

 

Bukit Atur Measurements

Most of the instrumentation deployed for the ground based OP3 measurements was deployed to the Bukit Atur site, with all Uk consortium members making measurements there. Instrumets were located in four shipping container laboratories which had been transported to the site from the UK for the project, as well as in the GAW building, on the GAW tower and on the Infrapro fire tower. A full listing of all instrumentation deployed by all consortium members can be found here, while the Manchester measurements are described in more detail here.

 

In Canopy Measurements

Measurements were made in canopy at a site close to the Infrapro nursery, located approimately 1Km away from Bukit Atur. These formed part of the ACES project and are described in detail here.

 

Aircraft Measurements

During the second measurement period, the FAAM 146 aircraft was based at Kota Kinabalu and made measurements in the vicinity of the OP3 ground stations. The aircraft was configured for chemistry measurements, further details can be found on the FAAM web site. The aircraft fit included the Manchester AMS rack. 50 hours of science flying were allocated to the OP3 project, giving a total of ten 5 hour flights.