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Airborne Program Expert Rickey Petty Nears a Goal Line
The longtime ARM Aerial Facility program manager and die-hard meteorologist prepares for a studious retirement One day in the fall of 1971, a 19-year-old football player at the State University of New York at Albany sprinted across the goal line to score a touchdown. A year later, the nimble teenager traded running the ball for…
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ARM Data Center Receives International Certification
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility maintains a global data archive spanning almost 30 years, and the data are flowing in faster than ever. ARM crossed the 2-petabyte mark in March 2020, a little more than three years after completing its first petabyte. Soon after reaching the 2-petabyte milestone, the ARM Data Center received…
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ARM’s Radar Network Evolves to Serve Research
New paper explores history of ARM’s radar effort—and what might be next Since 1992, radars have been a big part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s observing capability. Yet ARM’s impressive radar network—now more than 20 worldwide—has changed significantly to continue supporting cutting-edge cloud and precipitation science. In a May 2020 article published…
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New Lifting Condensation Level Height VAP Available
A new value-added product (VAP)—Lifting Condensation Level Height (LCLHEIGHT)—computes LCL heights from continuous surface-air observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory. The LCL is the altitude at which a parcel of (moist) surface air becomes saturated while ascending dry-adiabatically. LCLHEIGHT is used as input to the Large-Eddy…
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New VAP Maps Scanning ARM Precipitation Radar Data to Cartesian Grid
The Corrected Moments in Antenna Coordinates Version 2 (CMAC2) value-added product (VAP) corrects raw precipitation radar data and retrieves precipitation quantities from the measurements. A new evaluation VAP, Mapped Moments to a Cartesian Grid (MMCG), allows users to analyze CMAC2 data in Cartesian coordinates instead of antenna coordinates. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s scanning…
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LASIC Findings Integral to Southeast Atlantic Workshop
Editor’s note: From June 2016 through October 2017, ARM conducted the Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds (LASIC) field campaign on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. LASIC focused on smoke aerosols from African biomass fires and their interaction with clouds while moving over the Atlantic. From mid-August to mid-September 2017, the U.K. CLoud-Aerosol-Radiation Interaction…
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ARM Nimbly Handles Change in MOSAiC Plans
Instruments gathered data on icebreaker while it was away from the ice Even out of the ice, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility continued to collect important data for the 2019–2020 Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Because of travel and logistical challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the…
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ARM Special Announcement: COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) Facility Updates
ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory moved into the second phase of its COVID-19 reopening plan May 26. In Phase 2, the SGP is continuing to limit workers onsite; however, teamwork is being allowed, and some visitors will be allowed after a two-week moratorium. Visit requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis and are expected to begin…
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Clouds and Precipitation: Advice to ARM From Experts
Diversely skilled scientists meet to prepare a report on what ARM needs to observe and model processes vital to Earth’s water and energy cycles Clouds stay up. Precipitation comes down. Earth’s climate, to a great degree, pivots on these two components of the planet’s water and energy cycles. Add in aerosols and you have a…
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Charting a Course for ARM Aerial Measurements
Scientists gather to provide expertise and direction While much of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is firmly rooted on the ground with broad deployments of instruments and capabilities to collect observational data, some operations literally have their heads in the clouds. The ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) and ARM tethered balloon system (TBS) operations…