Center for Atmospheric Science contribution to FGAM
Introduction to FGAM
The Facility for Ground based Atmospheric Measurements (FGAM) (formerly the Universities Facility for Atmospheric Measurements - UFAM) is a NERC NCAS facility which was established through a Joint Infrastructure (JIF) award to provide state of the art instrumentation for observing small and meso-scale features in the atmosphere. The facility was originally a consortium of six universities, Reading, Aberystwyth, Leeds, Salford, East Anglia and The University of Manchester. The facility has since been expanded to include instruments provided on the FAAM 146 aircraft under a separate JIF award, and several other facilities. Additionally since January 2005, the Aberystwyth component of FGAM moved to The University of Manchester, with Professor Geraint Vaughan. The facility has instrumentation to study meteorology and dynamics, clouds and aerosols, and gas phase chemistry, and is coordinated by Professor Keith Browning (Reading) and managed by Dr. Alan Blyth (Leeds). Each institute also has an instrument scientist(s) to assist with the operation and development of the instruments. Formal applications to use facility equipment should be directed to Dr. Alan Blyth, and an application form is available for download on the FGAM web site. However before submitting a formal application, informal discussions with the PI responsible or with the instrument scientist are welcome.
Facilities hosted by the Centre for Atmospheric Science
The University of Manchester Centre for Atmospheric Science hosts in-situe and remote sensing instrumentation for the study of clouds, aerosols, radiation and dynamics. This includes several instruments for use on the FAAM BAE146 aircraft and some for use on our Cessna aircraft. We also host infrastructure to support these instruments such as mobile laboratory facilities etc. There are three FGAM instrument scientists at The University of Manchester they are Dr. James Dorsey (cloud microphysics instrumentation), Dr. Paul Williams (aerosol instrumentation) and Dr. Emily Norton (remote sensing instrumentation). The instrument scientists are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the FGAM instruments, and provide support for them during field deployments, as well as analyzing data and contributing to publications. They are also involved with continual development and improvement of the instruments and facilities available, and developing improved methods of data analysis.
The instruments and facilities hosted at the centre are listed here, and publications resulting from projects using FGAM equipment can be found here. Almost all our FGAM facilities have been used extensively, often on several major projects each year, with some in use almost continuously. A few major projects which have made extensive use of FGAM equipment are described in more detail on our project pages. These include ACTIVE, CLACE4, CSIP and RHaMBLe.