The Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Testbed (GMAST): A Facility for Long Term Complex Terrain Airflow Studies
Abstract
This presentation describes a new facility at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG), Utah that can be used to study airflow over complex terrain, and to evaluate how airflow over a mountain barrier affects wind patterns over adjacent flatter terrain. DPG's primary mission is to conduct testing, training, and operational assessments of chemical and biological weapon systems. These operations require very precise weather forecasts. Most test operations at DPG are conducted on fairly flat test ranges having uniform surface cover, where airflow patterns are generally well-understood. However, the DPG test ranges are located alongside large, isolated mountains, most notably Granite Mountain, Camelback Mountain, and the Cedar Mountains. Airflows generated over, or influenced by, these mountains can affect wind patterns on the test ranges. The new facility, the Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Testbed, or GMAST, is designed to facilitate studies of airflow interactions with topography. This facility will benefit DPG by improving understanding of how mountain airflows interact with the test range conditions. A core infrastructure of weather sensors around and on Granite Mountain has been developed including instrumented towers and remote sensors, along with automated data collection and archival systems. GMAST is expected to be in operation for a number of years and will provide a reference domain for mountain meteorology studies, with data useful for analysts, modelers and theoreticians. Visiting scientists are encouraged to collaborate with DPG personnel to utilize this valuable scientific resource and to add further equipment and scientific designs for both short-term and long-term atmospheric studies. Several of the upcoming MATERHORN (MountAin TERrain atmospHeric mOdeling and obseRvatioNs) project field tests will be conducted at DPG, giving an example of GMAST utilization and collaboration between DPG and visiting scientists.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.A51C..03Z
- Keywords:
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- 0399 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / General or miscellaneous;
- 3394 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Instruments and techniques