The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced an upcoming field campaign in Phoenix, Arizona, led by Principal Investigator Allison C. Aiken from DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The 18-month deployment, named Desert-Urban SysTem IntegratEd AtmospherIc Monsoon (DUSTIEAIM), will study the influence of urban and desert environments on storms and the monsoon around Phoenix.
From April 2026 to September 2027, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility will operate one of its three mobile atmospheric observatories in the Phoenix area as part of DUSTIEAIM. The campaign aims to understand how urban and desert environments affect convection and precipitation, particularly during the North American Monsoon season known for large dust storms, heavy rain, and flash floods.
Allison C. Aiken leads a team of 19 co-investigators representing nine universities, four national laboratories, and one industrial research division. The DOE selected DUSTIEAIM from a fall 2023 call for proposals supporting ARM domestic and international field campaigns aligned with the DOE Biological and Environmental Research program's goals.
Phoenix was chosen due to its significant population growth and dependence on the Colorado River for water supply amidst increasing drought conditions. Scientists aim to understand how changes in land surfaces might impact the region's water cycle and improve modeling of dust and wildfire particle transport.
DUSTIEAIM data will complement other DOE efforts such as the Southwest Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL) project in Arizona. This project seeks to provide decision-makers with information to address environmental concerns affecting vulnerable communities.
“We are excited about the opportunities that the synergies between the UIFL project and the DUSTIEAIM campaign will provide,” said DOE ARM Program Manager Sally McFarlane.
The ARM mobile observatory is proposed to be located at Arizona State University West Valley campus in northwest Phoenix. It will operate continuously throughout the deployment period.
The DUSTIEAIM team plans two intensive operational periods focusing on winter precipitation from November to March and on monsoon activity from July to September during water year 2026–2027.
In addition to this main site, a smaller site is proposed for collecting aerosol measurements critical for studying convective systems and aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions.
Allison C. Aiken has extensive experience with ARM campaigns, including her role as co-investigator for ARM’s Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign in Colorado from 2021 to 2023. Her background also includes serving on ARM’s User Executive Committee from 2019–2022.
DUSTIEAIM brings together researchers from institutions such as Argonne National Laboratory, Arizona State University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Colorado State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, IBM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of California campuses at Merced and San Diego, University of Miami, University of New Mexico, and University of Wyoming.
For more information about Brookhaven Lab’s role in this research contact Pete Genzer at genzer@bnl.gov.