OU BLISS Team Begins Research in Portugal

The OU-BLISS (Boundary Layer Integrated Sensing and Simulation) research team started their research project in Perdigão, Portugal last week!

School of Meteorology Professor Petra Klein and Matt Carney, School of Meteorology instrumentation technician, are the first members of the team that will be in Portugal during the project. They have arrived in the town of Perdigão, but will call the neighboring town of Alvaiade home during the project. Alvaiade is about 200 miles Southwest of Madrid, Spain.

Petra Klein (R) and Matt Carney (L) pose for a photo near the home of their new measurement site in Perdigão, Portugal.

The team will be participating in the Peridgão experiment. You can read more about the Perdiago Experiment here. OU BLISS is operating a miniature version of the Collaborative Lower Atmospheric Mobile Profiling System (commonly referred to as miniCLAMPS) to study flow over complex terrain.

The miniCLAMPS instruments at the Perdigão site

The CLAMPS facility can observe wind flows using a Doppler wind lidar. It also measures temperature and moisture profiles in the lowest part of the atmosphere with a microwave radiometer and an atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer. In Portugal, the team is deploying miniCLAMPS, but OU BLISS is accustomed to field work having deployed full size CLAMPS many times during the Plains Elevated Convection At Night (PECAN) experiment. Before PECAN, the team designed and completed a field campaign in northern Oklahoma called Lower Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment (LABLE) using same the instruments that later became part of CLAMPS.

A picture of the full-size CLAMPS Unit during PECAN

In the coming weeks more of the OU BLISS group will arrive to participate in the experiment. Masters student Tyler Bell will be participating and using the collected data as part of his Masters research. PhD students Josh Gebauer and Elizabeth Smith will also be part of the experiment. Beyond gaining valuable field work experience, this project allows these graduate students an opportunity to see a new part of the world and learn about new cultures. The team is updating a blog with their progress and stories from their time in Portugal. You can follow their journey here: BLOG – OU BLISS

The School wishes them a successful research campaign and is looking forward to seeing the results of their research!