[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 33 (Friday, February 16, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10672-10674]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-4004]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science; Office of Science Financial Assistance Program 
Notice 01-23; Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) of 
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby 
announces its interest in receiving applications for experimental and 
theoretical studies of radiation and clouds in conjunction with the 
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program as part of the U.S. 
Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This notice requests new 
applications and renewal applications of grants currently funded by DOE 
under previous ARM Program notices that are relevant to the terms of 
reference for this announcement and

[[Page 10673]]

responsive to the particular needs defined below.

DATES: Applicants are encouraged (but not required) to submit a brief 
preapplication for programmatic review. The deadline for submission of 
preapplications is April 16, 2001. Early submission of preapplications 
is encouraged to allow time for meaningful responses.
    Formal applications submitted in response to this notice must be 
received by 4:30 p.m., E.D.T., May 15, 2001, to be accepted for merit 
review and to permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year 
2002.

ADDRESSES: Preapplications referencing Program Notice 01-23 may be sent 
to the program contact, Dr. Wanda Ferrell, via electronic mail at: 
[email protected] or by U.S. Postal Service Mail at: Office 
of Biological and Environmental Research, Dr. Wanda Ferrell, 
Environmental Sciences Division, SC-74, U.S. Department of Energy, 
19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290. Electronic mail is 
recommended to speed up response to preapplications.
    Formal applications referencing Program Notice 01-23 should be 
forwarded to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Grants and 
Contract Division, SC-64, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-
1290, ATTN: Program Notice 01-23. This address also must be used when 
submitting applications by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, any 
commercial mail delivery service, or when hand-carried by the 
applicant. An original and seven copies of the application must be 
submitted; however, applicants are requested not to submit multiple 
application copies using more than one delivery or mail service.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Wanda Ferrell, Office of 
Biological and Environmental Research, Environmental Sciences Division, 
SC-74, U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 
20874-1290, telephone (301) 903-0043, fax (301) 903-8519, Internet e-
mail address: [email protected]. The full text of Program 
Notice 01-23 is available via the World Wide Web using the following 
web site address:  http://www.sc.doe/production/grants/grants.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. One of the major 
scientific objectives of the Environmental Sciences Division (ESD) is 
to improve the performance of predictive models of the Earth's climate 
and to thereby make predictions of the response of the climate system 
to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. The purpose of the 
ARM Program is to improve the treatment of radiation and clouds in the 
models used to predict future climate, particularly the General 
Circulation Models (GCMs). This program is one element of a major 
effort to improve the quality of current models and to support the 
development of sets of climate models capable of making regional 
prediction of climate and climate change. The major component of the 
ARM Program is an experimental testbed to gather data for the study of 
models of the terrestrial radiation field, properties of clouds, the 
full life cycle of clouds, and the incorporation of these process-level 
models into climate models. This facility is referred to as the Cloud 
and Radiation Testbed (CART). The first ARM CART site, Southern Great 
Plains (SGP), began operation in calendar year 1992, with instruments 
spread over an area of approximately 60,000 sq. km., centered on 
Lamont, Oklahoma. The Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) site consists of 
island-based suites of instrumentation focused on cloud and radiative 
properties in the tropical ocean environment. The first and second of 
the TWP Atmospheric Radiation and Clouds Stations (ARCS) are operating 
on the islands of Manus, Papua, New Guinea and the Republic of Nauru 
respectively. Similar instrumentation is gathering data in the vicinity 
of Point Barrow, on the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) and an inland site 
near Atqasak. Program information is available on the DOE/OBER WWW site 
using the URL: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/OBER/GC/arm.html.
    To ensure that the program meets the broadest needs of the research 
community and the specific needs of the DOE ESD, successful applicants 
are expected to participate as ARM Science Team members in the 
appropriate working group(s) relevant to their efforts. Costs for 
participation in ARM Science Team meetings and subcommittee meetings 
should be based on two trips of 1 week each to Washington, DC, and two 
trips of 3 days each to Chicago, IL.

Request for Grant Applications

    This notice requests applications for grants, both new and renewals 
that address the broad ARM goal of improving cloud and radiation 
parameterizations in climate models.
    Successful applicants for renewal of previously awarded grants, 
shall demonstrate: (a) continued relevance of their work to the goals 
of the ARM Program; (b) the contribution of work conducted under 
previous support to the goals of the ARM Program, including a listing 
of publications and presentations; and (c) relevant contribution to the 
development of the ARM Program, particularly the design and development 
of CART facilities, as a result of previous funding. Renewal 
applications should include a special section covering items (b) and 
(c) entitled ``Accomplishments Under Previous Support.''
    Successful applicants for new grants will demonstrate the role of 
their research in the improvement of GCMs and/or related models and 
delineate the path that their results will take to make those 
improvements. Applications are requested in one or more of the 
following four areas: (a) the development of models and 
parameterization of radiative transfer or cloud processes, including 
aerosol effects, or the testing of these models in GCMs or process-
level models; (b) experimental studies at CART facilities to test 
elements of models and their performance; (c) experimental studies to 
obtain key laboratory data; or (d) the analysis of existing data, 
including field data and satellite data, to support model development 
or testing.
    The efforts proposed must have as a focus the conduct of research 
using the CART facilities either in operation or being developed for 
ARM. Successful applicants will participate in the continuing 
development of the detailed experimental approaches for CART and guide 
the evolving development and acquisition of the experimental equipment.
    Specific areas of interest to the ARM Program include, but are not 
limited to:
     Determination of the concentration and advection of cloud 
water and ice on the regional scale;
     Statistics of cloud fields and their interaction with 
atmospheric radiation;
     Realistic retrievals of the 3D structure of clouds on 
scales of 10 to 100 km;
     Retrieval of ice water path and ice cloud microphysics 
using remote sensing measurements from the ground or ground and 
satellite;
     Calculation of heating rate profiles in realistic cloud 
fields;
     Climatological properties of aerosols over the SGP site 
using ARM data;
     Combining ground-based and satellite remote sensing data 
to provide improved characterization of the

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atmospheric column above and surrounding the CART sites, particularly 
at the remote sites in the TWP and NSA;
     Comparative studies using data from multiple CART sites;
     Use of ARM data to test quantitatively cloud and radiation 
parameterizations used in both GCMs and numerical weather prediction 
(NWP) models;
     Development of new cloud and radiation parameterizations.
    Additional information about ARM program needs and directions may 
be found in the Vision 2000 Reports from the Aerosol, Cloud Properties, 
Cloud Parameterization and Modeling, and Instantaneous Radiative Flux 
Working Groups. These reports are available on the ARM web site at: 
www.arm.gov. Investigators are encouraged to consult these reports. Not 
all the recommendations in these reports, however, are addressable by 
this current grant process.

Program Funding

    It is anticipated that approximately $3,000,000 will be available 
for awards in Fiscal Year 2002, contingent upon the availability of 
appropriated funds. Multiple year funding of awards is expected, with 
out-year funding also contingent upon the availability of appropriated 
funds, progress of the research, and programmatic needs. The allocation 
of funds within the research areas will depend upon the number and 
quality of applications received.

Collaboration

    Applicants are strongly encouraged to collaborate with researchers 
in other institutions, such as: universities, industry, non-profit 
organizations, federal laboratories and Federally Funded Research and 
Development Centers (FFRDCs), including the DOE National Laboratories, 
where appropriate, and to include cost sharing wherever feasible. 
Additional information on collaboration is available in the Application 
Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program that is 
available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html.

Preapplications

    Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a brief 
preapplication that consists of two to three pages of narrative 
describing the research project objectives and methods of 
accomplishment. These will be reviewed relative to the scope and 
research needs of the ARM Program. Principal Investigator (PI) address, 
telephone number, fax number and e-mail address are required parts of 
the preapplication. A response to each preapplication discussing the 
potential program relevance of a formal application generally will be 
communicated within 15 days of receipt. Use of e-mail for this 
communication will decrease the possibility of delay in responses to 
the preapplication. The deadline for the submission of preapplications 
is April 16, 2001. But applicants should allow sufficient time so that 
the formal application deadline is met. SC's preapplication policy can 
be found on SC's Grants and Contracts Web Site at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/preapp.html.

Merit Review

    Applications will be subjected to formal merit review (peer review) 
and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria which 
are listed in descending order of importance codified at 10 CFR 
605.10(d):
    1. Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project;
    2. Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach;
    3. Competency of Applicant's personnel and Adequacy of Proposed 
Resources;
    4. Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed Budget.
    The evaluation process will include program policy factors such as 
the relevance of the proposed research to the terms of the announcement 
and the agency's programmatic needs. Note, external peer reviewers are 
selected with regard to both their scientific expertise and the absence 
of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal reviewers will often be 
used, and submission of an application constitutes agreement that this 
is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution.

Submission Information

    Information about development and submission of applications, 
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection process, and other 
policies and procedures may be found in 10 CFR Part 605 and in the 
Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance 
Program. Electronic access to the Guide and required forms is made 
available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html. DOE is under no obligation to pay for any costs 
associated with the preparation or submission of applications if an 
award is not made.
    The technical portion of the application should not exceed twenty-
five (25) double-spaced pages and should include detailed budgets for 
each year of support requested. Awards are expected to begin on or 
about November 1, 2001. On the grant face page, form DOE F 4650.2, in 
block 15, also provide the PI's phone number, fax number and e-mail 
address. Attachments include curriculum vitae, a listing of all current 
and pending federal support, and letters of intent when collaborations 
are part of the proposed research. Curriculum vitae should be submitted 
in a form similar to that of NIH or NSF (two to three pages), see for 
example: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/cpo/gpg/fkit.htm#forms-9.
    In addition to the original and seven copies of the application 
that must be submitted, the applicants are asked to submit an 
electronic copy of the abstract in ASCII format to: 
[email protected]. The abstract should include the 
following information: PI and co-PIs, their institutions, and a brief 
summary of research.
    For researchers who do not have access to the World Wide Web, 
please contact Karen Carlson, Environmental Sciences Division, SC-74, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-
1290, phone: (301) 903-3338, fax: (301) 903-8519, e-mail: 
[email protected]; for hard copies of background material 
mentioned in this solicitation.
    Technical information on ARM is available on the WWW at the URL: 
http://www.arm.gov and the ARM Program Office at the Pacific Northwest 
National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, Washington 99352, 
telephone (509) 375-6964.
    The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for this program 
is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10 CFR part 
605.

    Issued in Washington, DC February 9, 2001.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director of Science for Resource Management.
[FR Doc. 01-4004 Filed 2-15-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-U