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From Pole to Pole: ARM’s Research Reach in the High Latitudes
Earth’s polar regions still hold much to be discovered by atmospheric scientists, many of them aided by ARM This is the fifth article in the yearlong “ARM30” series of stories on the evolution of ARM―its data, sites, science missions, field campaigns, and people. In late summer 2020, researchers and their shelters occupy an immensity of…
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SAIL at 1 Year: A Mountain Hydrology Campaign Sweeps Up Rich Data
With 9 months of observation to go, researchers await additional surprises in the Rockies In September 2022, during the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign near Crested Butte, Colorado, technician Wessley King checks a combined instrument setup. An eddy correlation flux measurement system measures heat fluxes, which are then compared with surface energy measures…
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Explore ARM’s Quarter-Century of Arctic Data
A remote atmospheric observatory in Alaska delivers continuous measurements from a critical locale in the fast-warming, fragile Arctic This is the fourth article in the yearlong “ARM30” series of stories on the evolution of ARM―its data, sites, science missions, field campaigns, and people. Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, is home to ARM’s North Slope of Alaska…
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Tropical Western Pacific’s Rich Legacy of Data Lives On
ARM’s first overseas atmospheric observatory, which operated from 1996 to 2014, also spurred international collaborations This is the third article in the yearlong “ARM30” series of stories on the evolution of ARM―its data, sites, science missions, field campaigns, and people. ARM Technical Director Jim Mather started with ARM in 1994, fresh out of graduate school,…
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MOSAiC Data Reveal Arctic Seasonal Atmospheric Processes
Direct observations reported in new Nature Communications paper The following is based on a story by Anne Manning, Colorado State University. Jessie Creamean, a research scientist at Colorado State University, collected samples of air, seawater, sea ice, and snow in the central Arctic during the 2019–2020 Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate…
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Southern Great Plains Observatory Remains a Research ‘Field of Dreams’
After 30 years of collecting data, ARM’s oldest and largest observatory is as robust as ever This is the second article in the yearlong “ARM30” series of stories on the evolution of ARM―its data, sites, science missions, field campaigns, and people. Dan Nelson, an engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, helped set…
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ARM’s Decadal Vision, Part 4: Observations to Models
ARM envisions amplifying the impact of its measurements on earth system models Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final article in a series about the four themes in ARM’s Decadal Vision document. The four images on ARM’s Decadal Vision cover represent the four themes in the document. From left to right, the themes are…
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City of Storms Gets an Intensive Look
A focused measurement effort on convective activity around Houston, Texas, begins in June On April 25, 2022, afternoon convection looms on the horizon behind ARM radars collecting data in La Porte, Texas, during the TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER). Photo is by Mark Spychala, Hamelmann Communications. Houston, Texas, is a subtropical metropolis of 2.3…
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ARM Marks 30 Years of Collecting Atmospheric Data
Starting in 1992, the user facility has pioneered continuous measurements of Earth’s fragile protective shell of gases and clouds This is the first article in a yearlong series of stories on the evolution of ARM―its data, science missions, instruments, field campaigns, and people. Gerry Stokes was ARM’s first chief scientist (1990 to 1998) and played…
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ARM’s Decadal Vision, Part 3: Data Services
ARM envisions advanced data analytics, flexible computing environments, improved software tools Editor’s note: This is the third article in a series about the four themes in ARM’s Decadal Vision document. At the heart of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is its observations. They start as raw data from instruments, get refined so they…