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Scientists Study Clouds’ Impact on West Antarctic Ice Melt
It has been half a century since the West Antarctic atmosphere has been studied in detail and an “unprecedented deployment” of instruments from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility is now delivering data that could help scientists understand how clouds affect melting glaciers.
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Scientists Find Mostly Liquid Particulates over Amazon Rainforest
When scientists participating in the GoAmazon 2014/2015 experiment measured the physical state of aerosols drifting over the Amazon rain forest, they found that 80 percent of the time those particles were liquid. Their findings, published in Nature Geoscience December 7, were a surprising departure from the results of a previous study.
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Covering All Bases: Probing the Spectrum of Land-Atmosphere Interactions
ARM-funded experiment to determine the flow of heat and moisture between Earth and air Mile-long fiber optic cables will stretch across the Southern Great Plains site to measure the flux of heat and moisture (evaporation) rising to the atmosphere from the land. In less than a year, mile-long fiber optic cables will stretch across prairies…
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MC3E: A Legacy of Learning
Four years after the field research campaign ended, data are yielding the secrets of storms Storm clouds over the C-SAPR, a dual-polarization Doppler radar used in the June 2011 MC3E field campaign. Large storm clouds influence the Earth’s climate system by redistributing heat and moisture in the atmosphere and delivering rain to the surface, yet…
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Taking Stock of the Atmosphere
ARM-ACME VI field campaign will chart changes in greenhouse gas levels Scientists are taking air samples at different heights above the Southern Great Plains site in this Cessna 206 aircraft. For the next year, a Cessna 206 aircraft from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility will sweep through the skies multiple times, skimming…
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Getting an Inside View of Arctic Clouds
Researchers investigate the polar atmosphere’s unique properties Researchers are using unmanned aerial systems to study Arctic atmospheric processes, especially where the tundra and ocean meet. On the north coast of Alaska, where the barren tundra meets the icy Arctic Ocean, Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility researchers are battling the elements to get a…
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Delineating the Sharp Edges of Clouds, Down to the Micrometer
Results of a study using the HOLODEC, an instrument developed in part with funding from the ARM Facility, were recently published in Science.
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Icy Arctic Proves Hot for Climate Data
After a successful sixteen-week data collection campaign, scientists are ready to explore their data. In June 2015, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility launched the ARM Airborne Carbon Measurement V (ARM-ACME V), an aerial campaign focused on capturing data from the sky to better understand warming in the Arctic.
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Nocturnal Storm Chasers Collect “Fantastic” Data Set to Improve Forecasts
The 45-day Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) campaign was an intensive, all-out race by nearly 200 scientists and students to collect as much meteorological data as possible during nighttime storms on the Great Plains. Starting June 1 and literally running on adrenaline until July 16, PECAN participants worked through more than 30 nights to…
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Partnerships Put the “Go” in the GoAmazon 2014/15 Campaign
Combining U.S. and Brazilian agencies and institutions and other international collaborators, the GoAmazon 2014/15 campaign will yield an unprecedented data set climate scientists can use to understand how aerosol and cloud life cycles in an unspoiled area are influenced by pollution emanating from a large tropical city.