To earn their Weather Badges, Girl Scouts rotated through a variety of learning stations, including one featuring instruments for measuring atmospheric properties. Campers blew air onto the radiation shields surrounding the temperature and humidity sensor to observe any changes recorded by the instrument. ARM file photo. On June 6, education and outreach staff from the…

Processed images from the Infrared Sky Imager are limited to a field-of-view (FOV) of 160 degrees to eliminate the problems inherent in retrievals along the horizon line. This is where any cloud signal is masked by the integrated infrared signal along the long path length through the atmosphere. ARM file photo. Imaging technologies help scientists…

To better understand the influence of clouds on radiative transfer, scientists need better information about not only the specific cloud microphysics, but also the state of the surrounding atmosphere. ARM file photo. Despite extensive instrumentation deployed at the ARM sites, some quantities of interest remain either impractical or impossible to measure directly or routinely. For…

After refinements based on a series of successful field trials, the latest Rotating Shadowband Spectroradiometer (RSS) joins the collection of permanent ARM instruments at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. The current RSS—known as the RSS105—is deployed at the SGP Central Facility and is the first commercially built RSS manufactured by Yankee Environmental Systems,…

As the Aqua satellite moves along, the AIRS mirror scans a “swath” across the Earth’s surface and directs infrared energy into the instrument. This energy is separated into wavelengths, which are transferred from Aqua to computers on the ground for additional processing. (Source: [http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov] [http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov]After almost four years, the last soundings in the final phase…

A ceiling port in the SGP Optical Trailer houses the optic element of the SWS, which connects to the spectrometer inside the trailer via fiber optic cable. ARM file photo. 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…

A representative from Sigma Space Corporation demonstrates the operation of the new micropulse lidar to ARM instrument mentors and site operations technicians. ARM file photo. 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…

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…

Sets of rain and stream gauges like this one will provide information about water level and flow rates from 14 different sites throughout the Whitewater River watershed during the HydroKansas field campaign. ARM file photo. Beginning in May, the Whitewater River watershed in south-central Kansas is the setting for a 3-year field campaign hosted by…

At the SGP site, the disdrometer is installed near the site’s main instrument cluster, approximately 50 feet east of the Central Facility. To avoid secondary splash contamination, the disdrometer’s sensor cone is surrounded by splash-resistant material. ARM file photo. This spring, a pair of new distrometers began collecting data at the ARM Southern Great Plains…