The surface flux station is also used to record the movement of heat and moisture between the ground and the atmosphere. Water vapor in the atmosphere gives off very small but detectable amounts of microwave energy. Microwave radiometers that point vertically help infer the amounts of water vapor and liquid integrated in a column of atmosphere. Energy balance Bowen ratio or eddy correlation stations are used to measure the rates of heat and moisture exchange between the surface of the Earth and the atmosphere at selected locations. Conventional meteorological stations measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation rate, snow depth, and atmospheric pressure at the surface.
Technicians release radiosondes on balloons as frequently as eight times per day.
The unique facilities at the CART site are attracting scientific participants from many other agencies, who come to use the site for research that cannot be performed elsewhere. More than a hundred major experiments were conducted in the site's first three years of operation. The following web pages are good places to find ARM information.