Welcome to the TAP Home Page!
Much of the science that had been planned for the Tropospheric Aerosol Program (TAP) will in the future be conducted under the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Science Program, which, beginning in Fiscal Year 2005, will focus on radiative forcing of climate change by atmospheric aerosols. Interested readers are referred to the ASP web site and to the documents accessible from that page.
Because much of the science that had been planned for TAP coincides with planned research in the Atmospheric Science Program, this page is being maintained to provide background technical information.
file (1.5 Mbyte).
This plan was prepared at the initiative of the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) (within the DOE Office of Science) in response to these crucial national and energy-related needs. These efforts were also encouraged by and coordinated with colleagues in the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy. The formulation of TAP has been greatly aided by colleagues in EPA, NOAA, NASA, and the NSF, other offices of DOE, industry, and academia.
After a draft version of this document had been circulated, a workshop was held at Brookhaven National Laboratory in June, 1999, to gain input from a broad community representing scientists from DOE National Laboratories, other Federal laboratories, academia, and the private sector, and officials in the various Federal agencies responsible for air quality and aerosol research. That document was circulated to Workshop participants and to other scientists and officials in the several cognizant Federal agencies and was made available on the World Wide Web. The TAP Program Plan is a refinement of that document that takes into account comments and suggestions on the Preliminary Program Plan. The Program Plan is an attempt to capture the wisdom and contributions of the many people who have participated in the planning of TAP, while maintaining a balanced and focused program.
As may be seen in the document, there is considerable need for the "atmospheric processes" component of a national aerosol research program that is described. The research is driven primarily by health effects but also to some extent by visibility and climate change considerations. There is also considerable interest from the energy production and consumption industries as much of the aerosol is energy related.
Click here for a prospectus on the ACP component of this IOP.
The proposed DOE TAP program is viewed as very much a part of an emerging national aerosol research program, coordinated by the federal Air Quality Research Subcommittee and implemented in collaboration with NARSTO.
The Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) conducts reasearch on atmospheric radiation and the controlling atmospheric properties and operates facilities to conduct this research. As tropospheric aerosols are a significant influence on the radiation budget there is a natural overlap of interest between ARM and TAP.
An update on the status of TAP was presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the DOE Atmospheric Sciences Program, Raleigh, NC, February 13-15, 2001. The viewgraphs of that presentation are available as a PDF
Earlier documents describing TAP that are available are the initial (June 1998) TAP Concept Paper and a set of viewgraphs describing TAP Tropospheric Aerosol Program--A Vision; for more convenient viewing on a smaller screen click here.
We welcome your interest in TAP and invite your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to contact us.
Lead Scientist
This page last modified 2004-03-08.
ARM - ASP - Aerosol IOP, May, 2003
Investigators in DOE's Atmospheric Chemistry Program (ACP) and TAP joined forces with investigators of DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) in an IOP (Intensive Observational Period) at the ARM Southern Great Plains site in North Central Oklahoma in May, 2003. The object of study was the influence of tropospheric aerosols on the radiation budget at the site. A secondary focus was characterization of the cloud nucleating properties of the aerosol. Much effort was directed to characterization of the microphysical and chemical properties of the aerosol by in situ measurements and remote sensing. A variety of closure experiments were conducted examining the ability of theory to predict aerosol optical properties and radiative influence. Key among these were tests of the ability to infer optical and cloud nucleating properties from chemical and microphysical properties of the aerosol. Further information is available on the ARM Aerosol IOP Homepage.
Related Activities
There is a considerable potential challenge to industry in helping to meet the recent National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particles. Thus there is an almost unprecedented opportunity for collaborative work in TAP with other offices of DOE, other Federal Agencies, industry, and academia.
Other TAP Documents
A description of TAP was presented at the Fall 1999 AGU meeting. The viewgraphs of that presentation are available as a PDF file (2 MByte) The Department of Energy's Tropospheric Aerosol Program - TAP: An Examination of Aerosol Processes and Properties. S. E. Schwartz and P. Lunn. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco, December 12- 17, 1999.
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The Department of Energy's Tropospheric Aerosol Program - TAP: Status Update.
Links to TAP-related Efforts
DOE Program Manager
Peter Lunn
Environmental Sciences Division, ER-74
U. S. Department of Energy,
Germantown, MD 20874-1290
301-903-4819
Internet: Peter.Lunn@science.doe.gov
Stephen E. Schwartz
Bldg. 815E
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton NY 11973
516-344-3100
Internet: ses@bnl.gov