AMF Architecture
Shelters
Flexibility is paramount in order to deploy in various locales in a timely and cost effective manner. Different locales will have differing constraints with respect to shelter requirements. Below are listed the various shelter options available and a short discussion of where these shelters may be utilized.
- Reusable shelters - Shelters that are easily transported by numerous modes (land, sea, and air) shall be the primary shelter. The reusable shelter is approximately 12 feet long by 7 feet wide by 7 feet tall. Its empty weight is approximately 1500 lbs. It is built to military standards as a tactical shelter. Two of these shelters, lengthened to 16 feet, have been procured for the AMF.
- Disposable shelters - Deployments are envisioned where the cost of deploying/recovering the shelter (transportation, customs, labor, etc.) is more expensive than the replacement cost of the shelter. In this case, a shelter that can be shipped to the deployment site on pallets, assembled, used, and then locally disposed of (burned, landfill, or donated) might be a cost-effective solution. These types of shelters were used at the SHEBA ice camp and were made of foam laminated between plywood.
- Use of existing facilities - Prior to deployment, the use of existing facilities should be explored. If the cloud radar and lidar are packaged so that they are standalone, space will be needed only for the data system and instrument computers.
- ARM shelters - The existing ARM instrument shelters are relatively heavy and not amenable to portable operations. However, there may be some locales in which the infrastructure exists that will make the use of these shelters desirable. For instance, it might be desirable to pre-deploy ARM shelters at sites that we will return to every few years, bringing only instruments and data systems.
Data System
The data system will serve the primary function of collecting data from the individual instruments. Secondary functions of the data system will include:
- Data ingest to NetCDF
- Data sharing during combined operations with other organizations
- Data display
- Health and status monitoring
A basic version of the current ARM data system will be used, in order to maximize data integration into the ARM Archive and operational support while minimizing development cost.
Power
The power distribution system can handle practically all voltages (110 – 240 volts AC) and frequencies (50/60 Hz) we expect to encounter. Each deployment will be evaluated to determine what power is available and its reliability, and whether a backup generator can be leased locally or not. Uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) are used to provide backup power to allow power switching from the local distribution to the backup generator. The AMF will have enough power handling capacity to accommodate instrumentation from collaborators.
Staffing
- A minimum of two staff are used for setting up and dismantling/packing the AMF.
- Two people normally staff the AMF, although the system is operable for periods of several hours by a single person.
- Due to the nature of the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) short-term deployments, mean-time-to-repair must be much quicker than is allowable at the fixed research sites.
- The staff that operate the AMF have technical backgrounds and training beyond what is currently required at the fixed research sites.
