The content of the ARM website is available to any browser, but for the best experience we highly recommend you upgrade to a standards-compliant browser such as Firefox, Opera or Safari.
VIEW CART
primary link menu HOME SITE INDEX PEOPLE
skip to main content ABOUT ARMABOUT ACRFSCIENCESITESINSTRUMENTSMEASUREMENTSDATAPUBLICATIONSEDUCATIONFORMS

Updates Archive

Operations Updates

ARM Climate Research Facility Operations Update - March 31, 2004

This bimonthly report provides a brief summary of significant accomplishments and activities in the operations area of the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF).

Science Board Established for ARM Climate Research Facility

The scientific infrastructure established by the ARM Program - heavily instrumented research sites, the ARM Data Archive, and the ARM Mobile Facility under development - is now available for use by scientists worldwide through the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF). As a national user facility, this unique asset provides the opportunity for a broader national and international research community to study global change. The goal of the ACRF is to serve scientific researchers by providing unique data and tools to facilitate scientific applications for improving understanding of climate science.

An eleven member Science Board, chaired by Dr. Chris Duffy, Penn State University, has been selected to serve as an independent review body for the ACRF and ensure it is used to conduct the highest quality science. Comprised of highly respected ARM-supported scientists and the external climate research community, the Science Board will review proposals, assess resource requirements, and assist scientific investigators with their proposals for funding from their prospective funding sources. The ACRF has enormous potential to contribute to a wide range of interdisciplinary science in areas such as meteorology, atmospheric aerosols, hydrology, biogeochemical cycling, and satellite validation. The ACRF may also provide potential monitoring sites where remote sensing and modeling related to homeland security can be validated.

microwave radiometer profiler
Some of the instruments collecting data during the Arctic Winter Water Vapor IOP include ARM's microwave radiometer profiler (left) and microwave radiometer (right), and NOAA's ground-based scanning radiometer (middle).

Arctic Winter Water Vapor IOP Starts; Microwave Radiometer Profiler Deployed

The Arctic Winter Water Vapor Intensive Operational Period (IOP), a collaborative effort with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Technology Laboratory, began on March 10 in Barrow, Alaska. The major goal of the Arctic Winter Water Vapor IOP is to demonstrate that millimeter wavelength radiometers can substantially improve water vapor and cloud liquid path observations during the Arctic winter, when conventional radiometers, lack the sensitivity required to accurately detect low water vapor and cloud amounts. The existing microwave radiometer, which has been operating routinely at the site for six years, provides information on cloud liquid and water vapor. The ability to obtain more accurate moisture measurements during the extremely cold and arid arctic winter will help ARM researchers to evaluate scaling of radiosonde humidity measurements by radiometer data. Similar scaling in the past has led to improved radiative transfer models from data at ARM's Southern Great Plains and Tropical Western Pacific sites; the same is hoped for ARM's North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site.

In support of the IOP, the microwave radiometer profiler (MWRP) was deployed permanently at the NSA site in Barrow. After completing installation, the instrument was calibrated with liquid nitrogen, and the computers were upgraded. The MWRP collects continuous, real-time vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water from the earth's surface up to 6.2 miles into the atmosphere in nearly all weather conditions. This instrument joins a suite of other ARM and NOAA instruments contributing to the IOP, which also includes daily radiosonde and in-situ observations.

External Data Center Gets a Big Boost

In addition to providing database support to the ARM Program, the External Data Center (XDC) identifies and acquires "external" sources of data to augment the data being generated within the program. These external data are transformed from their original received form to data sets of greater value to ARM researchers. These transformations may involve subsetting, merging distinct sets, changing format, averaging, or applying algorithms to produce new geophysical parameters. Recently, a locally attached storage system was added to the XDC production server, removing a significant bottleneck in the data transfer process and improving throughput by more than a factor of two.

The storage area on the XDC server is used to collect intermediate files generated during data ingest processing, most prominently in the Rapid Update Cycle (a short-range weather forecast numerical model) and GOES-9 (satellite) ingests. By optimizing existing local storage resources, the XDC was able to process the existing backlog of GOES-9 data months ahead of schedule. Following completion of backlog data processing, current data started to be ingested on February 17, 2004.

This concludes an intensive effort that was initiated in June 2003, and significantly enhances ARM's ability to access timely external atmospheric data. This optimization also provides sufficient extra processing capacity for all the external data streams until a major hardware upgrade planned for later this fiscal year.

High Speed Internet Service Established at Oliktok, Alaska

Thanks to a collaboration with Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC), Starband satellite internet service to Oliktok - located on the eastern side of ARM's North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site - is being established to support the ARM Program's Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE). With various modes of 50kb up/500kb down data transfer available, this new internet service will substantially enhance data transfer rates during the M-PACE, scheduled to begin in Fall 2004. M-PACE will provide critical measurements to aid in understanding mixed-phase (ice and water) clouds wherever they occur, leading to improvements in cloud models used in simulating global climate. BASC is providing the hardware for the link, and the service rates are inexpensive. This internet service may also be available for Atqasuk (another ARM locale at NSA) and Deadhorse (M-PACE headquarters) in the future, and is already in place at the Toolik Field Station, another locale where M-PACE research will be conducted.

A not-for-profit organization based in Barrow, Alaska, BASC is dedicated to the encouragement of research and educational activities pertaining to Alaska's North Slope and the adjacent portions of the Arctic Ocean. Arctic residents and scientists are seeing and experiencing environmental changes that include increased thawing of permafrost, changes in the extent and thickness of sea ice, shifts in patterns of rainfall and snowfall, and changes in tundra growth. The ARM NSA Site Manager was recently elected chair of the BASC Scientific Management Advisory Committee, which provides advice to the BASC Board of Directors regarding research projects, educational outreach, and management of the Barrow Environmental Observatory.

Metrics Monitor Activity on ARM Education Website

The overall goal of the ARM Education and Outreach team is to develop basic science awareness and increase critical thinking skills in environmental science and climate change for K-12 students located near ARM sites at the North Slope of Alaska, Southern Great Plains (Oklahoma), and Tropical Western Pacific. One of the tools the ARM education team uses to promote student interest and involvement is the "Ask a Scientist" feature on the ARM website (http://education.arm.gov/studyhall/ask.stm). To capture the demographics of those using this feature and to generate feedback for improving other areas of the education web pages, the team recently added metrics to the "Ask a Scientist" web page.

In just a few weeks of collecting metrics, over 160 questions were received. Questions came mainly from students between grades 3 through 12, with the majority from students between grades 7 and 10. A small percentage of questions came from graduates and teachers. ARM education staff will incorporate the information gained from the metrics as they refine outyear planning to deliver on their goal. Planned activities in the next one to two years include (1) kiosk updates and development of new kiosks, (2) continued development of lesson plans for teachers at existing ARM sites, and (3) considering the development of a mobile kiosk that could accompany the ARM Mobile Facility.