Operations Updates
ARM Climate Research Facility Operations Update - April 30, 2005
This bimonthly report provides a brief summary of significant accomplishments and activities in the operations area of the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF).
ACRF Communication Products Garner Awards in Competition
Entries in the Communicator Awards are judged by industry professionals who look for talents that exceed a high standard of excellence and work that serves as a benchmark for the industry.
Trying to describe ARM and ACRF to an educated audience is hard enough; imagine explaining it to someone who knows next to nothing about atmospheric science! Judges of the 2005 Communicator Awards print media competition apparently got the message, as they gave awards to four ACRF entries in various categories. One entry, the 2004 ACRF Annual Report (PDF, 916K), received the prestigious Crystal Award of Excellence, given to those entrants "whose ability to communicate places them among the best in the field."
More than 5,000 entries from throughout the United States and several foreign countries entered this year's competition. Out of those, approximately 13 percent received the Crystal Award of Excellence, while 19 percent received an Award of Distinction. This award is given for work that "exceeds industry standards in communicating a message or idea." ACRF products that received an Award of Distinction included the following: ACRF Website—featuring the extensive homepage redesign completed last year; ACRF Climate, Coloring and Crosswords...and Other Fun Stuff—an activity book for students; and the ACRF Operations Update—an online newsletter published every two weeks (you're reading it now!). Earlier this year, the Operations Update also received a "Distinguished" award in the category of technical marketing from the Puget Sound Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, qualifying it for the international online communication competition.
Creating understandable public information is one mission of the ACRF Communications Team. They are responsible for maintaining display materials used at conferences throughout the year, keeping the website up-to-date, and producing a variety of other targeted information products. They also provide graphics, editing, and production assistance to the ACRF Education and Outreach Program. This facet of ACRF focuses on providing learning tools to students and teachers, and promoting awareness about climate research among communities that host ACRF sites.
New Microwave Radiometer Makes Water Vapor Measurements in the Arid Cold a Snap
The 183 GHz radiometer, protected inside an insulated enclosure (inset), is installed on the roof of the primary instrument shelter at Barrow. To prevent snow from accumulating on the mylar window, a blower mounted beneath the radiometer directs air through a duct to a standard Y-shaped fitting mounted on top of the radiometer.
Scientific research increasingly shows evidence of climate change first appearing in the Arctic. Unfortunately, typical instruments for measuring water vapor—like the microwave radiometers used at the ACRF Southern Great Plains and Tropical Western Pacific locale—struggle to obtain accurate moisture readings in highly arid conditions like the Arctic. Using a DOE Small Business Innovative Research grant, ACRF pursued the development of a microwave radiometer that could operate near 183 GHz—a rate as much as 100 times more sensitive to water vapor than other ACRF microwave radiometers. In March, ACRF operations staff and developers from ProSensing deployed a prototype of the new 183 GHz microwave radiometer at the ACRF North Slope of Alaska site in Barrow. Although similar microwave radiometers have been demonstrated in Barrow for short periods, this prototype will operate through the 2005-2006 winter. This long-term deployment will permit refinements to the design based on actual Arctic conditions and will allow ARM scientists to have access to accurate water vapor measurements over an entire annual cycle.
Because of its very low water vapor content, a region of the infrared spectrum (around 20 µm) that is opaque in most places becomes transparent in the Arctic. That is, infrared energy (heat) that would normally be trapped and used to help regulate the Earth's global temperature, instead escapes into space. As the Arctic climate warms and causes the thin ocean ice pack to shrink, more open water will be exposed, thereby allowing more water vapor to reach the Arctic atmosphere. This, in effect, will "close the window" at 20 µm, producing yet more warming. The key to modeling this effect is an accurate measurement of the amount of water vapor in the Arctic atmosphere.
The new radiometer actually measures at 183.31 GHz ±1, ±3, ±7, and ±14 GHz. The 183.31 ±1 GHz channel is useful when conditions are very cold and very dry, but as the Arctic winter gives way to spring and then summer, the amount of water vapor increases and the ±1 GHz channel saturates (i.e., the signal no longer increases as the water vapor amount increases). The ±3 and ±7 GHz channels allow the radiometer to still provide useful water vapor data while the ±14 GHz channel permits the amount of liquid water in the thin Arctic clouds to be accurately determined.
Annual Quality Improvement Inspections Take Place
During the SGP site audit conducted in April 2005, a member of the Continuous Quality Improvement Program team is accompanied by a local jackrabbit at the Ringwood Extended Facility.
The Continuous Quality Improvement Program (CQIP) implemented by the ARM Program in 1998 requires annual audits and inspection visits to each of the ACRF Southern Great Plains (SGP) site's 27 field facilities located in Oklahoma and Kansas. A small team of scientists and engineers conduct the inspections each year to evaluate the field facilities from several different perspectives, including science, engineering, operations, and safety. To cover all the facilities at the SGP site, the inspections are divided into two trips, each trip involving half of the facilities. The most recent CQIP inspection trip took place April 11-14, 2005 at all the southern SGP "satellite" facilities (extended, intermediate, and boundary facilities). Overall, the team found the facilities to be in good condition, which they credited to the quality efforts of the technicians who perform routine maintenance throughout the SGP site. The SGP northern satellite facilities will be inspected this coming fall.
Site audits ensure that instruments and facilities are in compliance with established ACRF procedures and the ARM Program's scientific expectations. The inspections encompass each facility's grounds, instruments, and equipment, plus maintenance procedures, technician proficiency, and other work quality measures. Analysis of each measure provides feedback for planning and implementing improvements in instrument performance and maintenance, site maintenance, and future site development. Summary reports, containing the CQIP team findings from the recent audit, will be completed in the next few weeks.
