Partnerships: How We Do What We Do

The environmental problems of today are challenging, as you will see in the section below describing Environmental Issues. The successful studies of those problems have demanded an integrated approach that not only crosses the traditional disciplinary lines, but requires that the problems be studied from many angles. This means that field studies, theoretical research, and laboratory measurements must all be brought to bear in the search for scientific understanding.

Our Organization: Interactive Groups

At the Aeronomy Laboratory, the approach to studying atmospheric problems is to attack from all sides: field, theory, and laboratory. One of the hallmarks of the Aeronomy Laboratory is that it is comprised of scientists who are experts in all three of these areas and who work separately and together to study the atmosphere.

The field component of the Laboratory's research involves in-situ and remote measurement of chemical composition (with an emphasis on the reactive species) and dynamic properties (such as wind velocity, turbulence, and wave motion). Theoretical research, in the areas of atmospheric photochemical modeling and atmospheric dynamics and transport, builds a conceptual picture of how the atmosphere "works" and gains a predictive capability. An experimental laboratory chemical kinetics program characterizes the fundamental photochemical atmospheric processes (such as the rate of chemical reactions and their reaction products).

These three components of the Aeronomy Laboratory's research are extensively cross-linked. The laboratory program often supplies input to the theoretical models and frequently helps in the development of new instruments that are needed for field measurements. The modeling investigations often point to the need for new laboratory studies and field measurements. The field research often suggests new directions for laboratory investigations and can provide critical diagnostic tests of model predictions.

The Aeronomy Laboratory is organized into six Program Areas and a Directorate:

• Directorate
• Atmospheric Chemical Kinetics
• Meteorological Chemistry
• Chemistry and Climate Processes
• Theoretical Aeronomy
• Tropical Dynamics and Climate
• Tropospheric Chemistry

The Program Areas are the research focal points within the Laboratory. While each one focuses on a particular component of the Laboratory's research (e.g., tropospheric chemistry) and on a particular approach (e.g., theory and modeling), much of the Lab's research involves more than one Program Area. For example, about 20% of the Laboratory's publications are co-authored by researchers from more than one Program Area.

A good example of this research method is the current Aeronomy Laboratory work (still in progress) on the subject of the role of iodine in the atmosphere. The work was initiated with theoretical studies that indicated that iodine might be the "forgotten halogen" with regard to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Scientists in the Aeronomy Laboratory's Middle Atmosphere Program looked at the possibilities with a state-of-the-art chemical/dynamical model, finding that, indeed, there may be mechanisms by which enough iodine could reach that stratosphere to have an impact on the ozone layer. But laboratory studies of the possible chemical reactions were lacking, and so scientists in the Atmospheric Chemical Kinetics Program commenced research to provide the missing information. Scientists in both of those Programs are working together to see if field measurements of the iodine-containing gases are achievable.

NOAA/CIRES: A Vital Interaction

The Environmental Research Laboratories of NOAA have eight Joint Institutes with various universities. In Boulder, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) was founded in 1967 as a joint endeavor of the University of Colorado and the Environmental Research Laboratories. Over these 25-plus years, CIRES has played a vital role in the local Federal-State venture involving the University and the ERL Laboratories in Boulder (including a very longstanding and fruitful relationship with the Aeronomy Laboratory). The CIRES/NOAA relationship has fostered both graduate and undergraduate careers by enabling young scientists to contribute to federal research; that research, in turn, has greatly benefitted from the infusion of talent and ideas from the University community. Currently, about 60% of the Aeronomy Laboratory's personnel is associated with CIRES. This includes the full range of personnel that make up the Aeronomy Laboratory; students, postdoctoral associates, career scientists, engineers, and technical support staff.

NOAA and the NRC Postdoctoral Program

Young scientists from many university graduate programs begin their postdoctoral research career at the Aeronomy Laboratory. In addition to the Joint Institute noted above, an important program for bringing in these scientists has been the Postdoctoral Research Associates Program of the National Research Council (NRC). During any given year, the Aeronomy Laboratory typically has 2-3 postdoctoral researchers that are supported through this NRC program. Nearly 20 of the Aeronomy Laboratory's scientists serve as advisors. There can be no doubt that the NRC program succeeds at its mission of furthering the career preparation of young researchers: upon completion of the NRC appointment, Associates move on to established positions throughout the nation and world. Many of the Aeronomy Lab's current staff are former NRC postdocs, including the Director of the Aeronomy Laboratory. Occasionally, the Aeronomy Laboratory is host to scientists in the NRC's Senior Research Associates program.

External Interactions: Our Colleagues in the Community

In addition to the interactions among the internal groups of the Aeronomy Laboratory noted above, another hallmark of the Laboratory's research through the years has been collaborative activities with international (e.g., the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, or UKMO, and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research of New Zealand, or DSIR) and other national research instritutions: universities, other Agencies, other OAR Laboratories, and the private sector. The most telling indication is that over half of the Aeronomy Laboratory's publications involve co-authors from other institutions. In addition to these basic scientist-scientist collaborations, the Aeronomy Laboratory has been involved in many jointly planned and conducted field campaigns, in which inter-organizational breadth was one of the key factors in carrying out the campaign. Several of these have involved a very fruitful, long-standing, and close working partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). See, especially, the section on stratospheric ozone depletion.