-
Connection Between Clouds and Climate Highlighted in a Special Section of Scientific Journal
Press Release Media Contact: Lynne Roeder, 509.372.4331 A key uncertainty in computer simulations of climate change is the broad range of cloud-climate feedback processes. Natural phenomena that occur in cloud lifecycles present a difficult challenge to scientists studying how dynamic cloud conditions affect the sun’s incoming and Earth’s outgoing energy and, in the longer term,…
-
Summertime Clouds Are All Wet in Alaska
Two ARM sites—Barrow and Atqasuk—at the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) provide key data about cloud and radiative processes at high latitudes. Barrow is located at the northern most point of Alaska, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, while Atqasuk is located on the Arctic tundra about 100 km south (inland) of Barrow. Analyses…
-
Battle With Bugs Nearly Over Thanks to New Radar
The main purpose of the millimeter wavelength cloud radar (MMCR) is to measure cloud boundaries (i.e., cloud tops and bottoms), and to record the reflectivity profile of the atmosphere up to 20 km. Unfortunately, for a great portion of the year at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site, data from the MMCR are often…
-
New Data Streams Available for ARM Mobile Facility Deployment Sites
New climate datastreams are now available from Point Reyes National Seashore in California, where the first deployment of the ARM Mobile Facility is currently underway, and for the site of the ARM Mobile Facility’s next deployment at Niamey, Niger, Africa. The new datastreams, which are supplementary to the datastreams obtained by the Mobile Facility instruments,…
-
ARM Capabilities Promoted at Air & Waste Management Conference
Approximately 2,500 environmental professionals attended the 98th annual Air & Waste Management (A&WMA) conference and exhibition that took place June 21-24 in Minneapolis. Exhibiting for the first time at the conference, ARM staff provided extensive background information about the ARM science program and the transition to a national user facility. Several inquiries about data, measurements,…
-
Coastal Clouds Field Campaign Takes Off in July
Since March 2005, the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) has been at Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California for the Marine Stratus Radiation, Aerosol, and Drizzle Intensive Operational Period. The goals of this 6-month field campaign are to collect data from cloud/aerosol interactions and to improve understanding of cloud organization that is often associated with…
-
New Mobile Atmospheric Laboratory Gathering Weather and Climate Change Data on the California Coast
Are Aerosols Reducing Coastal Drizzle and Increasing Cloud Cover? Scientists sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) are conducting a six-month atmospheric research campaign at the Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California. The experiment’s goal is to help researchers understand how aerosols—small particles such as soot, dust and smoke—influence the structure of marine…
-
Guest Instruments to Collect Aerosol Data During Coastal Field Campaign
The ARM Mobile Facility’s (AMF’s) inaugural field campaign, the Marine Stratus Radiation Aerosol and Drizzle (MASRAD) Intensive Operational Period, is well underway at Point Reyes National Seashore on the northern coast of California. As the title implies, the goal of MASRAD is to study the characteristics of marine stratus clouds, particularly the influence of aerosol…
-
New Total Sky Imager Improves Reliability Picture in Tropics
Environmental conditions in the tropics present unique challenges for conducting scientific research. At ARM’s Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) locale, instruments that collect climate data are continually subjected to adverse operating conditions that can impact their reliability. As part of an ongoing effort to add and upgrade instruments to meet these challenges, total sky imagers (TSI)…
-
Cloud Animation Joins Learning Tools on Science Education Website
A primary focus of ARM Education and Outreach is to develop basic science awareness and increase critical thinking skills focusing on environmental science and climate change for K-12 students. Though their efforts primarily focus on the communities that host ARM sites, the program also supports relationship building between teachers, students, scientists, and other programs that…