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Summer Interns Receive VIP Seating During Aerosol Campaign
Students from two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) programs participated in the Aerosol Life Cycle Intensive Operational Period (IOP) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island, NY, from June 15 through August 15, 2011. Students and their mentors came from the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program and the Faculty and Student Teams (FaST)…
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Data from Field Campaign in Black Forest, Germany, are Red Hot
A paper published in a special issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society describing the scientific strategy, field phase, and research highlights from the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) was identified this week by Thomson Reuters/Essential Science Indicators as a “Hot Paper” in the field of Geosciences. This designation means it…
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ARM Cloud Retrieval Ensemble Data Set Available for Evaluation
A new ARM evaluation product, the ARM Cloud Retrieval Ensemble Data Set (ACRED), is now available for testing by the science community. ACRED was developed with the motivation to provide a rough estimate of the uncertainties in current retrieved cloud microphysical properties for climate model evaluation and development. It was created by assembling numerous existing…
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New Surface Spectral Albedo VAP Provides Surface Type Observations at Southern Great Plains
The Surface Spectral Albedo (SURFSPECALB) value-added product (VAP) has been released for operational production at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. This VAP creates a near-continuous best estimate of broadband and narrowband downwelling irradiance, upwelling irradiances, and surface albedo using the multifilter radiometers (MFRs) on the 10-m and 60-m towers and the multifilter rotating shadowband…
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Lidar Value-Added Product Provides Cloud Measurements
Lidar cloud boundaries are a useful tool for identifying cloud base height and cloud thickness in optically thin clouds. The Micropulse Lidar Cloud Mask (MPLCMASK) value-added product (VAP) provides cloud base height, cloud top height, and backscatter coefficient for non-polarized micropulse lidar measurements. In addition, depolarization ratio is computed for polarized and fast-switching micropulse lidar…
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Microwave Radiometer Retrieval Data Available for ARM Sites
The Microwave Radiometer Retrievals (MWRRET) value-added product (VAP) has now been released as an operational product, and data for the Southern Great Plains (SGP), North Slope of Alaska (NSA), and Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) sites are now available. Data are also available for the Black Forest, Germany deployment of the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF). Additional…
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Welcome to the Matrix
Overhaul of Data System Status Viewer Hits Bull’s-eye How do you display the operational status of nearly 200 instruments at multiple sites around the world on a single web page? In late June, ARM implemented a major system overhaul of the Data System Status Viewer, or DSView—the interactive database providing operational status information for every…
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ARM Shares Experience with Chinese Collaborators
Researchers Jie Song from the University of Northern Illinois and Weidong Guo from Nanjing University visited the ARM Southern Great Plains site in June to learn more about ARM and discuss in detail the organization of the user facility, processes and procedures, and instrumentation. Their visit was prompted by continuing interest in China to establish…
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A Giant Lift for Arctic Climate Data
Ushering in the first operational precipitation radar on the U.S. Arctic Coast, engineers completed acceptance testing for the new X-band scanning ARM precipitation radar (X-SAPR) on June 21 at its location atop the Barrow Arctic Research Center in Alaska. Signal returns on June 24 provided an indication of the radar’s coverage, reaching distances of 200-250…
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Stargazing from Nauru
Nauru is the world’s smallest island nation, covering only eight square miles in the South Pacific, but in late June, it’s the perfect location for studying Pluto. Two scientists from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo., are traveling to ARM’s Tropical Western Pacific site on Nauru Island to observe Pluto and two of…