# Presentation: 477278

## ARM Climate Research FacilityOverview

## Program OverviewAtmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program

- Largest global change research program supported by the U.S. Department of Energy
- Created to improve cloud and radiation physics and cloud simulation capabilities in global climate models
- Provides data products from continuous field measurements to advance global climate models

## Program OverviewARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF)

- ARM sites and infrastructure designated as national user facility
- Unique asset for bringing climate change studies to a broader research community
- Significant research capability for the global scientific community

## Program OverviewACRF Mission and Objective

- Provide the national and international scientific community with the infrastructure needed for scientific research on global change
- Global change research includes the study of alterations to climate, land productivity, oceans, water cycle, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems

## Research Sites

- Permanent research sites in Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska, and Tropical Western Pacific
- SGP is the largest, most extensive climate research field site in the world (143,000 square kilometers)
- Chosen for variety of cloud types and surface flux properties; large seasonal variation in temperature and humidity

## Research Sites

- NSA consists of two facilities: Barrow and Atqasuk
- Chosen for different climates at high latitudes; planetary heat loss from the poles; and ice sheets that affect solar absorption and sea level
- TWP consists of three facilities: Manus, Nauru, and Darwin
- Chosen for warm sea temperatures; deep frequent atmospheric convection; high rain rates; strong coupling between atmosphere and ocean; and variability associated with El Niño

## Research Sites

- ARM Mobile Facility contains similar instruments and data systems and fixed sites to provide atmospheric measurements anywhere in the world
- ARM Aerial Vehicles Program provides key climate measurements using aerial platforms to complement ground-based measurements

## Research SitesDedication and Deployment Timeline

**Research Sites****Dedication and Deployment Timeline**

**1992  -  1994  -  1996  -  1998  -  2000  -  2002  -  2004  -  2006  -  2008**

- Southern Great Plains
- site dedicated

- Manus site at Tropical
- Western Pacific dedicated

- Nauru site at Tropical
- Western Pacific dedicated

- Darwin site at Tropical
- Western Pacific dedicated

- Barrow site at North
- Slope of Alaska dedicated

- Atqasuk site at North
- Slope of Alaska dedicated

- ARM Mobile Facility
- first deployed

- ARM Aerial Vehicles
- Program established

## Measurements

- Cloud and radiation measurements gathered from instruments on the ground, attached to aircraft, and placed on ships
- Measurement data stored and distributed via Data Archive
- Data to research atmospheric radiation balance and cloud feedback processes critical to understanding climate change

## Instruments

- Comprehensive set of world-class, unique instruments available to the global scientific community
- Key instruments include one of the few operational Raman lidars in the world; millimeter wavelength cloud radars; radar wind profilers; and total sky imagers
- Recent additions are the microwave radiometer and advanced rotating shadowband spectrometer

## Data

- Collected continually for more than 10 years
- Stored in data files, bundled, and processed into single 24-hour file representing data stream
- Provided through ARM website at no cost (www.archive.arm.gov/cgi-bin/arm-archive)
- Current user community includes 2300 registered users from 9 U.S. agencies, 165 universities, and 54 countries

## Field Campaigns

- Focused short-term research activities targeted to address specific science questions
- Provides supplemental measurements to increase routine data and test and validate new instruments
- Provides extensive field data to be analyzed and applied to improve computer models

## Major Field CampaignsFixed Sites

- Tropical Warm Pool – International Cloud Experiment: Designed to characterize cirrus and upper troposphere, along with convective environment (TWP)
- Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment: Measured cloud microphysical properties to document the breadth of radiative transfer processes in mixed-phase clouds (NSA)
- Aerosol Field Campaign: Measured aerosols to improve understanding and model-based representation of aerosol radiative influences (SGP)

## Major Field CampaignsCloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign

- Cross-disciplinary, interagency research effort
- Data sets collected from surface and aircraft instrumentation to improve parameterizations of cumulus convection and associated parameterizations of land surface processes

## Major Field CampaignsARM Mobile Facility

**Major Field Campaigns****ARM Mobile Facility**

- Marine Stratus Radiation Aerosol and Drizzle: Collected data from cloud/aerosol interactions to improve understanding of cloud organization often associated with drizzle (Pt. Reyes, California)
- Radiative Divergence Field Campaign: Took first direct, well-sampled measurements of the rate at which tropical clouds and dust in Niamey absorb radiation and heat the atmosphere (Niamey, Niger)

## Major Field CampaignsConvective and Orographically Induced Precipitation Study

- Conducted in the Black Forest region of Germany
- 9-month convection study of rainfall resulting from atmospheric uplift in mountainous terrain
- Next. . . the AMF goes to China in 2008!

## Field Campaign Proposal Process

- Principal Investigator submits pre-proposal
- Pre-proposal screened for feasibility
- Full proposal may be invited
- Proposal receives scientific and logistic reviews
- Decision made by U.S. Department of Energy Program Manager

## Thank You!

- Questions and discussion