Print

Field Campaigns

Cal-Mex 2010

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are planning a joint field study of atmospheric processes over California and the eastern Pacific coastal region in 2010. The goal of the program is to study in California the important issues at the nexus of the air quality and climate change problems in order to provide scientific information regarding the trade-offs faced by decision makers when addressing these two inter-related issues - hence the name CalNex 2010.

The Molina Center for Energy and the Environment is planning to coordinate a US-Mexico collaborative study during CalNex 2010 to investigate issues of mutual interest to the two countries along Mexico- California border region. This will involve deploying an experienced ground-based field measurement team aimed at characterizing the emissions from major sources in the California-Mexico border regions; determining the spatial and temporal variability in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and traditional air pollutants; and assessing possible impact of these emissions on local and regional air quality, human health and climate change.

MILAGRO - MCMA-2006

As part of the continuation of the·MCMA-2003 Campaign led by the Integrated Program on Urban, Regional and Global Air Pollution, the multi-national team of investigators plans to return to Mexico City in 2006 to provide ground-based MCMA fine particle and secondary aerosol precursor gas measurements in support·MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations) Campaign, an unprecedented international effort to observe and quantify the fate of anthropogenic pollutants emitting from the world’s second largest city.· This field campaign will give the MCMA-2003 participants the unique opportunity to expand the MCMA data set with a complementary set of data taken ~3 years later.

MCMA-2003

In the Spring of 2003 (April 1-May 5), a multinational team of experts led by Luisa Molina of MIT conducted an intensive, five-week field campaign in the Mexico City Metropolitana Area (MCMA). The overall goal of the field measurement campaign in the MCMA is to contribute to the understanding of the air quality problem in megacities by conducting measurements and modeling studies of atmospheric pollutants in the MCMA. Such an understanding would help provide a scientific base for devising emissions control strategies to reduce exposure to harmful pollutants in the MCMA and also provide insights to air pollution problems in other megacities, including large urban centers in the US.