During the 88th annual AMS meeting, interested participants stop by the ACRF exhibit where ARM researchers answered their questions.

In January, the ACRF joined nearly 100 other exhibitors at the 88th American Meteorological Society annual meeting in New Orleans. This year’s meeting was organized around the broad theme of “Enhancing the Connectivity between Research and Applications for the Benefit of Society.” More than 3000 attendees from academia, the private sector, and government attended presentations and poster sessions throughout the week, including several that covered recent research results from the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) deployment in Africa and the Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC) that took place in June 2007. They also visited the Exhibit Hall, where visitors to the ACRF display were noticeably drawn to a set of four monitors showing streaming data from the ACRF sites. A poster describing the 2006 AMF deployment in Africa also attracted attention, as several sessions during the meeting were devoted to African climate. Brochures describing the ACRF, AMF, how to order data, and the 2007 Annual Report were also popular items.

Jim Mather, ACRF Technical Director, demonstrates a

ACRF staff also participated in WeatherFest, an interactive science and weather fair for the public that kicks off the annual AMS meeting. Using a “cloud in a jar” demonstration, ACRF Technical Director Jim Mather explained to children and their parents about how light is absorbed and scattered in clouds. During the four-hour event, ACRF staff handed out more than 300 climate change activity books and 100 lesson plans to students and teachers. Teachers were very happy to learn that these resources, including additional lesson plans and educational newsletters, could be found on the ARM Education web pages.