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1. Understanding temperature, humidity, and ozone profiles from unmanned aerial system flights at the Lake Michigan shoreline in relation to lake breeze

   Kies, B. P.A. (March 2022, Conference proceedings series American Chemical Society)

   In June 2020, a series of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flights were conducted as part of the Wisconsin’s Dynamic Influence of Shoreline Circulations on Ozone (WiscoDisco20) campaign over the Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area in Southeastern Wisconsin. Temperature and humidity measurements were taken using an iMet-XQ2 atmospheric sensor and ozone measurements were taken by a 2B Tech POM sensor. Both sensors were mounted on a DJI M600 Hexacopter and two flights were conducted a day, one in the morning around 8 am (CDT), and one in the afternoon around 2 pm (CDT). Each flight was broken up into three subsections to land and switch batteries, and hover altitudes were 10 meters above ground level (m AGL), 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, and 120 m AGL. Observations aloft were compared with observations from a regulatory ground station to verify the reliability of the UAS measurements. Using the field data compiled from June 15-19, 2020, the existence of atmospheric inversions that were introduced by east to southeast winds illustrated a clear lake breeze effect. Atmospheric inversions are sections of the atmosphere where the temperature, humidity, and pollutant composition can have sudden dramatic shifts. These inversions occurred at different heights each day, but the inversion layer’s beginning ranged from 40 m to 100 m. The inversions demonstrated a large change in both humidity and temperature, often sharply changing up to 5 °C and by up to 35% relative humidity. With this change also comes a significant increase in ozone concentration in the inversion layer compared to its surroundings, with ozone peaking in concentration at the beginning of the inversion layer. Ozone in the inversion layer was regularly found to be in excess regulatory safety standards of throughout the week. 

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2. STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems

   Tian, E.; Kishbaugh, T.; Showalter, D.; Barge, S. (July 2022, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Eastern Mennonite University received a 5-year S-STEM award for their STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems (SSELP) program. The goal of this place-based, interdisciplinary scholarship program is to increase the number of academically talented, low-income students who graduate in STEM fields and either pursue immediate employment in STEM careers or STEM-related service or continue their STEM education in graduate school. In 2018 and 2019, two cohorts of seven students were recruited to major in biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, mathematics, or environmental science. A key part of recruitment involved on-campus interviews, during a February Scholarship Day, between STEM faculty and potential scholars. As the yield rate for the event is high (54-66%), the university has continued this practice, funding additional STEM scholarships. In order to retain and graduate the scholars in STEM fields, the SSELP faculty designed and carried out various projects and activities to support the students. The SSELP Scholars participated in a first-year STEM Career Practicum class, a one-credit course that connected students with regional STEM practitioners across a variety of fields. The scholars were supported by peer tutors embedded in STEM classes, and now many are tutors themselves. They participated in collaborative projects where the cohorts worked to identify and solve a problem or need in their community. The SSELP scholars were supported by both faculty and peer mentors. Each scholarship recipient was matched with a faculty mentor in addition to an academic advisor. A faculty mentor was in a related STEM field but typically not teaching the student. Each scholar was matched with a peer mentor (junior or senior) in their intended major of study. In addition, community building activities were implemented to provide a significant framework for interaction within the cohort. To evaluate the progress of the SSELP program, multiple surveys were conducted. HERI/CIRP Freshman Survey was used in the fall of 2018 for the first cohort and 2019 for the second cohort. The survey indicated an upward shift in students’ perception of science and in making collaborative effort towards positive change. Preliminary data on the Science Motivation Questionnaire showed that the SSELP scholars began their university studies with lower averages than their non-SSELP STEM peers in almost every area of science motivation. After over three years of implementation of the NSF-funded STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems program, the recruitment effort has grown significantly in STEM fields in the university. Within the two cohorts, the most common majors were environmental science and engineering. While 100% of Cohorts 1 and 2 students were retained into the Fall semester of the second year, two students from Cohort 1 left the program between the third and fourth semesters of their studies. While one student from Cohort 2 had a leave of absence, they have returned to continue their studies. The support system formed among the SSELP scholars and between the scholars and faculty has benefited the students in both their academic achievement as well as their personal growth. 

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3. A hybrid multifunctional physicochemical sensor suite for continuous monitoring of crop health

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37041-z  

   Hossain, Nafize Ishtiaque; Tabassum, Shawana (December 2023, Scientific Reports)

   This work reports a first-of-its-kind hybrid wearable physicochemical sensor suite that we call PlantFit for simultaneous measurement of two key phytohormones, salicylic acid, and ethylene, along with vapor pressure deficit and radial growth of stem in live plants. The sensors are developed using a low-cost and roll-to-roll screen printing technology. A single integrated flexible patch that contains temperature, humidity, salicylic acid, and ethylene sensors, is installed on the leaves of live plants. The strain sensor with in-built pressure correction capability is wrapped around the plant stem to provide pressure-compensated stem diameter measurements. The sensors provide real-time information on plant health under different amounts of water stress conditions. The sensor suite is installed on bell pepper plants for 40 days and measurements of salicylic acid, ethylene, temperature, humidity, and stem diameter are recorded daily. In addition, sensors are installed on different parts of the same plant to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of water transport and phytohormone responses. Subsequent correlation and principal component analyses demonstrate the strong association between hormone levels, vapor pressure deficit, and water transport in the plant. Our findings suggest that the mass deployment of PlantFit in agricultural settings will aid growers in detecting water stress/deficiency early and in implementing early intervention measures to reduce stress-induced yield decline. 

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4. Field Testing of a Diode-Laser-Based MicroPulse Differential Absorption Lidar System to Measure Atmospheric Thermodynamic Variables

   Robert A. Stillwell, Scott M. (June 2023, Proceedings of the 30th International Laser Radar Conference)

   Traditionally, quantitative lidar techniques like differential absorption lidar (DIAL) and high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) utilize high-power-aperture product designs, which partially compensates for the need to take discrete deriva-tives of noisy data in post-processing (for number density for DIAL and extinction for HSRL) and provides for high-performance measurements, i.e., higher resolu-tion, accuracy, or precision. Conversely, low-power-aperture product lidar designs are easier to make eye-safe, reliable, and cost-effective, which are important attributes for network development and field deployment. The atmospheric science community has expressed the need for high-quality, quantitative, robust, network deployable, and cost-effective sensors for a variety of applications such as improved numerical weather forecasting – in essence requiring the best of both worlds without the accompanying drawbacks. In response to this need, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Montana State University have been developing the MicroPulse DIAL (MPD) architecture for thermodynamic profiling in the lower atmosphere. The MPD architecture takes advantage of the benefits of low-power, low-cost laser diodes, and fiber optics to achieve quantitative profiling leverag-ing narrowband filtering and efficient elastic scattering. A field-deployable MPD instrument capable of humidity, quantitative aerosol, and temperature profiling has recently been developed. This presentation will describe the current status of this thermodynamic profiler and the initial results from a recent field deployment. Emphasis will be given to the analysis of the temperature data including compar-isons to co-located radiosondes to describe current performance. 

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5. Performance evaluation of the Alphasense OPC-N3 and Plantower PMS5003 sensor in measuring dust events in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah

   https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2455-2023  

   Kaur, Kamaljeet; Kelly, Kerry E. (January 2023, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques)

   Abstract. As the changing climate expands the extent of arid andsemi-arid lands, the number of, severity of, and health effects associated with dust events are likely to increase. However, regulatory measurements capable of capturing dust (PM10, particulate matter smaller than10 µm in diameter) are sparse, sparser than measurements of PM2.5 (PM smaller than 2.5 µm in diameter). Although low-cost sensors couldsupplement regulatory monitors, as numerous studies have shown forPM2.5 concentrations, most of these sensors are not effective atmeasuring PM10 despite claims by sensor manufacturers. This studyfocuses on the Salt Lake Valley, adjacent to the Great Salt Lake, whichrecently reached historic lows exposing 1865 km2 of dry lake bed. Itevaluated the field performance of the Plantower PMS5003, a common low-costPM sensor, and the Alphasense OPC-N3, a promising candidate for low-costmeasurement of PM10, against a federal equivalent method (FEM, betaattenuation) and research measurements (GRIMM aerosol spectrometer model1.109) at three different locations. During a month-long field study thatincluded five dust events in the Salt Lake Valley with PM10 concentrations reaching 311 µg m−3, the OPC-N3 exhibited strong correlation with FEM PM10 measurements (R2 = 0.865, RMSE = 12.4 µg m−3) and GRIMM (R2 = 0.937, RMSE = 17.7 µg m−3). The PMS exhibited poor to moderate correlations(R2 < 0.49, RMSE = 33–45 µg m−3) withreference or research monitors and severely underestimated the PM10concentrations (slope < 0.099) for PM10. We also evaluated aPM-ratio-based correction method to improve the estimated PM10concentration from PMSs. After applying this method, PMS PM10concentrations correlated reasonably well with FEM measurements (R2 > 0.63) and GRIMM measurements (R2 > 0.76), andthe RMSE decreased to 15–25 µg m−3. Our results suggest that itmay be possible to obtain better resolved spatial estimates of PM10concentration using a combination of PMSs (often publicly availablein communities) and measurements of PM2.5 and PM10, such as thoseprovided by FEMs, research-grade instrumentation, or the OPC-N3. 

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