“The truth will demand for that debt to be repaid,” stated Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, incumbent Ateneo de Manila University President, regarding the current climate crisis. He analogized the adaptation of events in the recently concluded Home Box Office miniseries Chernobyl with the historical nuclear fallout and warned the audience of the calamitous consequences that climate change will incite on the world as the environmental situation continues to worsen.
Various scientists at the frontiers of space science and research from around the world visited the Areté Art Gallery at Ateneo de Manila University last October 3 to participate in a freestyle talk and photo exhibit organized by the university.
The Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes-Philippine Experiment (CAMP2Ex) Program—an initiative helmed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Naval Research Laboratory (US NRL), and the Manila Observatory (MO)—was established to conduct research on the weather systems in the Philippines, deepen US-PH relations, and instill a broader perspective for the youth to pursue science-related and research-oriented professions in the country. The event also marked the MO’s 154th anniversary.
In pursuit of truth and continuity
Following Villarin’s opening speech, US Embassy Public Affairs Counselor Philip Roskamp delivered the congratulatory remarks, recognizing the combined efforts of the team behind CAMP2Ex. “This is the model we need to advance scientific research. We need people with diverse sets of experiences—we need people [who share] a common goal—working together to contribute to the global scientific community,” he stressed.
He proceeded to emphasize the importance of conducting programs such as CAMP2Ex to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the numerous factors that affect weather and climate, and more specifically, to quantify the data in the region as little research has been done prior to the team’s arrival. “The data sets that took 10 years to gather will not just be numbers on a spreadsheet somewhere—[they hold] limitless potential for new discoveries,” Roskamp shared, accentuating the importance and relevance of the data toward future endeavors.
Finally, he concluded his speech by underscoring the need to build scientific awareness among the public, ”We need to promote scientific awareness and make [the] conditions necessary for scientific research to flourish.”
The birth of an idea
The lead scientists who hosted the first panel discussion were Dr. Hal Maring, Radiation Sciences Program Manager from NASA; Dr. Jeffrey Reid, Mission Scientist from the US NRL; Dr. Gemma Narisma, Philippine Science Lead from the MO; and Dr. James Simpas, the Philippine Project Leader from the MO.
The group recalled the dawning of the consortium, with Maring revealing that the premise of the program was first pitched 10 years prior. “It began as a question and [as] a head scratching event between scientists from NASA, the US NRL, and scientists from this region—not just [from] the Philippines but also [from other Southeast and East asian countries],” he shared.
The scientists then narrated how they initially held informal study sessions where they shared results on their respective projects in nearby regions relative to the Philippines. Upon further collaboration, it became apparent that the team needed to conduct field experiments to “measure, analyze, and quantify” the behavior of aerosol particles, which are combinations of microscopic airborne solid and liquid particles; discover the composition and properties of air masses to identify areas affected by the air from other continents; and several other objectives related to Philippine climate. Thus, CAMP2Ex was conceptualized.
Reid also added that prior to CAMP2Ex, NASA relied on satellite systems and models as the primary means of research and surveillance. However, these technologies were found to have a difficult time trying to monitor the climate and weather in the region. He ended his segment by mentioning that the Philippines is a good “boundary” land as it lies between the Western Pacific Ocean and polluted air masses from the maritime continents, which refer to landmasses found in between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This places the country in a zone where cyclones form and enter the region, emerging as the tail end of the monsoon flow—the seasonal reversal of strong continental winds that affects the weather in different regions across the planet.
Armed with science
After exploring the foundations which CAMP2Ex was built on, the second panel discussion dealt with the scientists’ collective experiences during daily operations in the Asian airspace. The second panel consisted of Dr. Edward Fukada, CAMP2Ex Lead Forecaster from the US NRL; Shane Visaga, a research assistant (RA) from the MO; Dr. Simone Tanelli, who is in charge of Airborne Precipitation and Cloud Radars at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Dr. Sebastian Schmidt, an expert in Hyperspectral Radiometry from the University of Colorado-Boulder; and Angela Magnaye, a research associate from the MO.
Schmidt began the discussion by detailing the radio instruments available in the P-3 Orion research aircraft, revealing that most of the instruments are actually proxies or prototypes of space instruments used in NASA’s satellite systems.
Visaga, meanwhile, narrated how inspired and “grateful” she felt for the opportunity she was given, being able to witness scientists accomplishing and integrating their respective tasks. “[This was] a rare experience, and I saw firsthand how the scientists were able to collaborate [seamlessly] in real time, onboard the plane while we were ‘cloud-hunting’,” the RA conveyed.
Reiterating the scientists’ reasons for deciding to conduct the program in the Philippines, Tanelli explained that the country has a “very complex weather system”. “One of the main reasons that we went to the Philippines is the weather—it is very rich, there are always a lot of things going on,” she shared.
Building off Tanelli’s statements, Fukada disclosed how difficult it was to forecast the weather in the country because of the topography—the physical features of land masses—and the air masses in the region. This was effectively proven to be a perpetual problem that, at times, hindered the team’s progress.
The event was concluded by Narisma who emphasized that the program is only the initial step in understanding the complexities of climate and weather patterns in the region. Moving forward, she expressed hopes of more collaborations in the different fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and encouraged the youth to pursue professions in these disciplines.
