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Environmental Sciences
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Department
of Environmental Sciences
University
of Virginia
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| Research
Actitivies |
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Trolley system used to study radiative
transfer inside the forest canopy
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Severeal
short-term studies are being carried out at the Virginia Forest
Research Facility.
One of them is to investigate the actinic irradiance disposition inside
the
forest canopy. This information is necessary to test and validate
photochemical
models designed to study chemical processing in forest canopies. A
trolley
system is employed to carry radiometers over a 30-m tansect.
Radiometers and
trolley system are controlled by a data logger which also stores the
resulting
information. Several intensive studies are done throughout the groing
to
learn the temporal variations in radiative transfer in the forest
canopy. |
Gas chromatograph and canister used to
determine hydrocarbon species and amounts
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Durng the summer Of 2002, a field
study was conducted to estimate the amount of carbon monoxide formed
from the oxidation of isoprene. Air samples from different heights were
first gathered and stored in electropolished canisters. Then isoprene
amounts were determined using gas chromatographs equipped with flame
ionisation detectors. Carbon monoxide were measured with a combination
of a gas reduction detector and a regular gas analyzer (TECO).
Canopy-level carbon monoxide are dereived using the gradient
diffusion approach. Estimated carbon monoxide are compared with
values
estimated using a photochemical model. |
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