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

Order Data

Or use the datastream interface at the ARM Archive.

Questions/Comments?

We would love to hear from you! Call us at 1-888-ARM-DATA.

 "QCRAD" VAP Process

Instrument Categories: Radiometric

Description: Data Quality Assessment for ARM Radiation Data

Data plot of upwelling LW testing versus air temperature. Green and red represent the 1st and 2nd level maximum, while light and dark blue represent the 1st and 2nd level minimum limits.

The QCRad VAP has been developed to assess the data quality, and to enhance data continuity, for the ARM radiation data collected at all ARM Central and Extended facilities. The QCRad methodology in essence uses climatological analyses of the surface radiation measurements to define reasonable limits for testing the data for unusual data values. The main assumption here is that the majority of the measurements are "good" data, which for field sites operated with care such as those of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is a reasonable assumption. Then data which fall outside the normal range of occurrences are labeled either "questionable" or "bad", depending on how far outside the normal range the particular datum reside. The methodology not only sets fairly standard maximum and minimum value limits, but includes many cross-comparisons based on what we have learned about how these instruments behave in the field in developing other VAPs such as the Diffuse IR Loss Correction VAP (Younkin and Long, 2004) and the Best Estimate Flux VAP (Shi and Long, 2002).

The output files from the QCRad VAP—particularly the S1 files for general users—are now the recommended source for all ARM surface radiation measurement data. For the SGP Central Facility, the "qcradbeflux1long" data stream contains the best results and should given first consideration for use.

Additional Information on the QCRad VAP

Value-Added Products (VAPs) Produced

Primary Measurements

The following measurements are those considered scientifically relevant. Refer to the datastream (netcdf) file headers for the list of all available measurements, including those recorded for diagnostic or quality assurance purposes.

Sites / Facilities

Note: Click the "collapsed arrow" to expand/collapse the list.