ARM

Improved Broadband Radiation Data Available from Multiple ARM Sites

ARM radiometers operate in a field with a building and wind turbines in the distance.
ARM radiometers operate near Lamont, Oklahoma. ARM file photo.

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility processes yearly data from the Data Quality Assessment for ARM Radiation Data (QCRAD) product—the recommended ARM datastream for broadband surface irradiance measurements—to produce level 2 (c2) files. These files undergo additional processing to improve the data.

New QCRAD c2-level data are available for 2023–2024 at ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) and North Slope of Alaska (NSA) atmospheric observatories, as well as for 2019–2020 at the now-inactive ARM Mobile Facility deployment at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The sites and date ranges of the new c2-level data are:

  • Oliktok Point from August 26, 2019, to August 6, 2020
  • the NSA central facility (Utqiaġvik, Alaska) from August 20, 2023, to July 17, 2024
  • SGP extended facility E12 (Pawhuska, Oklahoma) from August 30, 2023, to May 30, 2024
  • SGP E13 (Lamont, Oklahoma) from August 16, 2023, to May 31, 2024
  • SGP E32 (Medford, Oklahoma) from August 15, 2023, to May 31, 2024
  • SGP E33 (Newkirk, Oklahoma) from August 15, 2023, to May 30, 2024
  • SGP E37 (Waukomis, Oklahoma) from August 24, 2023, to June 3, 2024
  • SGP E39 (Morrison, Oklahoma) from August 25, 2023, to June 5, 2024
  • the broadband radiometer station (BRS) at the SGP Central Facility (Lamont, Oklahoma) from August 16, 2023, to May 29, 2024.

QCRAD applies numerous quality control tests and comparisons between instruments to flag questionable data and remove bad data. These tests and comparisons are the same at both the c1 (operational) and c2 levels. QCRAD also calculates a best-estimate total downwelling shortwave irradiance value.

The c2-level data have infrared loss corrections applied to one of the downwelling shortwave instruments. This correction will affect the output of the downwelling shortwave values when the sum of the direct plus diffuse shortwave is not available as the “best estimate” for downwelling shortwave. When c2 files are available, they should be used.

More information is available on the QCRAD web page. To share your experience using the data or to ask a question, contact ARM translator Damao Zhang.

Access the new QCRAD data in the ARM Data Center. (To download the data, first create an ARM account.)

To cite the QCRAD BRS data (qcradbrs1long), please use doi:10.5439/1227217. For the other QCRAD data (qcrad1long), please use doi:10.5439/1227214.

Katie Dorsey

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