In late April, a new Shortwave Spectroradiometer (SWS) began operating at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. The instrument measures the zenith solar spectral radiance (1.4° field of view) between 300-2200 nm. The SWS incorporates two Zeiss miniature monolithic spectrometers having a spectral resolution of 8 nm in the range 300-975 nm, and 12…

On May 3, the first of seven new and upgraded micropulse lidars (MPLs) was deployed at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site’s Central Facility. These seven identical systems (including one spare) will replace the existing MPLs deployed at facilities throughout the SGP site and include new polarization capability. The MPLs provide critical backscatter measurements…

This spring, a 915 MHz radar wind profiler (RWP) was successfully installed at the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) site in Niamey, Niger, West Africa, for the remainder of the 1-year RADAGAST field campaign which started in January. The RWP will provide information about wind speed, wind direction, and wind shear, and also enable measurements of…

Beginning in May, the Whitewater River watershed in south-central Kansas is the setting for a 3-year field campaign hosted by the ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. Called “HydroKansas,” the goal of this research project is to develop a predictive understanding of floods on multiple spatial and temporal scales, using data collected from an area…

This spring, a pair of new distrometers began collecting data at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site and the ARM Darwin site in the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP), adding details about rain drop size distribution to the extensive collection of ARM measurements. A disdrometer is an instrument that measures the velocity and size distribution…

To validate the space-based carbon dioxide retrievals by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) through comparative carbon dioxide measurements, ARM’s Tropical Western Pacific site in Darwin, Australia, is hosting a ground-based solar-viewing Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) mobile laboratory, sponsored by the OCO Science Team. Between January 15 and February 7, 2006, overflights of the FTS site,…

A W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) recently joined the suite of baseline capabilities offered by the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF). The term “W-band” refers to the specific radio frequency range of this radar, which is a 95 gigahertz pulse Doppler zenith pointing radar, providing profiles of cloud reflectivity and particle velocity. In mid-March, the WACR…

In April, ARM operations staff at the North Slope of Alaska will begin launching balloon-borne sounding systems—better known as weather balloons—two times per day from the Great White Instrument Shelter in Barrow. Each weather balloon is equipped with a radiosonde package for measuring air pressure, temperature, and humidity. ARM operations personnel will launch the balloons…

With a new Chief Scientist at the helm, just over 300 ARM scientists and ARM infrastructure staff took part in the 16th ARM Science Team meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 27-31, 2006. After an initial day of focused meetings among the ARM Working Groups, Dr. David Thomassen, Acting Associate Director of DOE’s…

As reported in April 2005, a network of infrared thermometers (IRT) is being installed throughout the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site for the purpose of measuring cloud base temperature and inferring cloud base height across the domain. These measurements will enhance existing SGP surface and satellite cloud measurements to help scientists improve their calculations…