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Projects

Gebouw Meteorologische Dienst Suriname

STAR

The STAR project (Support for Tropical Atmospheric Research) is approved for funding under the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union for Global Change and Ecosystems. The general objective of the STAR project is to support the European contribution to international observation systems, and to support international cooperation in setting up these observation systems in the tropics. More specific, the main objectives of this project are:

  • to integrate European efforts for monitoring in the tropics. The Paramaribo Observatory will host a number of research groups, either for a short periods, or for executing a long-term observation programme. The collocation of the instruments provides a synergy of the measurements that will improve the interpretation and retrieval of the observations,
  • to provide the European atmospheric research community with facilities for tropical atmospheric research. The infrastructure of the observatory will be upgraded in order to host research groups and their instruments. The renewed infrastructure will provide the flexibility to install and operate additional instruments on a campaign basis or for extended periods,
  • to promote co-operation between South American and European partners in order to ensure the future execution of the long-term observational programme as well as to raise public awareness for climate change issues in this part of the world. In order to achieve this, an exchange programme for students and staff of the Anton de Kom University and the other partners of the STAR project will be established,
  • to promote the construction of long, homogenized time series of climate and other global change parameters in the tropics. As a pilot for this objective it is proposed to retrieve historical observational data on the tropical atmosphere in Suriname, and to make these available to the atmospheric research community,
  • to support pilot studies of new observational techniques applied to the tropical atmosphere, in order to design an optimal observation programme that provides reliable high quality data.

STAR is a joint effort of European, Surinam and Japanese research groups to establish and maintain a shared atmospheric observatory in Paramaribo, Surinam. Paramaribo is the capital city of Surinam and lies on the northern coast of South America, at 5.8N and 55.2W. Paramaribo station is located on the premises of the Meteorological Service of Surinam (MDS) in the south-western outskirts of the city, and has been operational since 1999.

A Pilot Study, aimed at testing the suitability of a Fourier Transform InfraRed spectrometer (FTIR, from Bremen University) and a Raman backscatter lidar (from AWI Bremerhaven) for long term deployment in the tropics, forms an integral part of STAR.

The STAR project ended in September 2006

Pilot study

The set of instruments that are operational at the Paramaribo site is subject to change because of participation in intensive observational campaigns and because of an increasing involvement of partners. Some instruments require large investments from one or more partners as well as significant additional tasks for the operator team. Feasibility studies and careful preparations are needed before it is decided to install the instruments at a site remote from the home institute.
Under the STAR project a Pilot Study is conducted in order to assess the feasibility of operating two remote sensing instruments permanently in the tropics: a Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometer from the University of Bremen (Uni-B) and a Aerosol Raman LIDAR system from the Alfred Wegener Institute of Bremerhaven (AWI-B).

The LIDAR measures aerosol, clouds and water vapor in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. Scientific goals are:

  • study tropical biomass burning plumes and Saharan dust events,
  • investigate the aerosol distribution and cloud formation processes at the tropical tropopause.

The FTIR measures total columns and vertical concentration profiles of up to 20 trace gases. Scientific goals are:

  • study of tropical biomass burning plumes,
  • investigate the composition of the tropical tropopause region,
  • study the composition of the stratosphere with regard to the stratospheric ozone chemistry.

The Pilot Study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was from 25 September - end November 2004, during the long dry season with the ITCZ to the north. This was so successful that it was decided to perform a second phase from 10 February - 18 March 2005, during the short dry period when the ITCZ lies to the south.

In synergy with the FTIR and LIDAR observations, daily radiosondes are launched. Specifically for the night-time LIDAR observations and synchronous to ENVISAT satellite overpasses (SCIAMACHY validtion), high accuracy water vapor profiles are recorded with a balloon-launched frost-point hygrometer, called "Snow White".