Seven Southeast Asian Studies (7 Seas): Atmospheric Supersite in Singapore

Through collaborations with scientific partners in Taiwan and various Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the Seven SouthEast Asian Studies (7 SEAS) is jointly initiated by NASA’s Radiation Science, Tropospheric Chemistry, Air Quality and Oceanography programmes as well as the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Office of Naval Research – Global (ONRG) and the US State Department in an effort to investigate the complex interactions between aerosols (anthropogenic or natural) and meteorological systems, especially with clouds, and their impacts on air quality in the Southeast Asian region. 7 SEAS is a multi-disciplinary regional science programme which operates with the integrative support of in-situ measurements, remote sensing and scientific modeling. Under the cooperative framework of 7 SEAS, an atmospheric supersite has been established in the National University of Singapore to collect baseline data on air quality and the urban atmosphere as well as information on the transboundary haze during periods of severe biomass burning. The station has a comprehensive suite of instruments to measure the radiometric and meteorological properties of the atmosphere, vertical distribution of aerosols and clouds, and the microphysical and chemical properties of aerosols at the surface. Among the instruments, the on-site Cimel Sunphotometer is part of the world-wide AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) while the Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) is part of the NASA’s growing Micro Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET).