AMF2 Baseline Instruments

Instrument Suites
View the list of instruments used at each deployment.

Instrumentation for AMF2 is, with a few notable exceptions, the same as used by AMF1. The AMF2 system was designed for marine or shipboard deployments. Generally, except as noted, the AMF2 instruments are marine-capable.

Identifies instruments either newly acquired or upgraded as a result of Recovery Act funds.

Available Instrumentation for Land or Ocean-Based Deployments

Aerosols

Aerosol Observing System (AOS), included in AOS:

    • Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (enhanced)
    • Dual Column Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter (CCN)
    • Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2)
    • Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS)
    • Photo-Acoustic Soot Spectrometer (PASS), 3 Wavelength
    • Humidigraph (Scanning Relative Humidity with 3 single wavelength nephelometers)
    • Nephelometer, 3 Wavelength
    • Condensation Particle Counter (CPC), 10 nm to >3000 nm particle size range
    • Condensation Particle Counter (CPC), 2.5 nm to >3000 nm particle size range
    • Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (HTDMA)
    • Particle Soot Absorption Photometer (PSAP), 3 Wavelength
    • 7-Wavelength Aethelometer

    Atmospheric Profiling

    Clouds

    Radiometers

    • Atmospheric Sounder by Infrared Spectral Technology (ASSIST)
      This system is manufactured by LR Tech and is similar to the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) used at other ARM research sites.
    • Portable Radiation Measurement Package (PRP2)
      The PRP2 is a test instrument that holds promise for relaxing some stability requirements of a ship-based deployment, potentially reducing the need for expensive, complex sun trackers. Where possible both sets of instruments (SKYRAD and PRP2) will be operated for comparison and continuity with existing ARM datastreams.
    • Sun Pyranometer (SPN)

    Surface Meteorology

    • Meteorological Instrumentation at AMF (MET)
      To provide accurate wind measurements, the roll, pitch, and yaw rotations (as well as ship speed and direction) will be incorporated into the datastream and will be used in a post-processing step approximately once per hour. In addition, this new ship disposition datastream will be separately maintained and available to users as an AMF2 data product. Optical sensors will measure precipitation for AMF2 and two of each precipitation sensor will be used to account for sea spray contamination. The anemometers used on AMF2 are 2D heated ultrasonics.
    • Bulk Aerodynamic Fluxes (BAF)
      The BAF is a new ARM measurement (although similar calculations are made in the BAEBBR VAP to correct EBBR calculations when the Bowen ratio is near -1). Aerodynamic fluxes will be measured using wind speed, wind direction, and temperature data from the MET tower, but at a height appropriate for the bulk aerodynamic calculations. Measurements of the ocean current speed and direction—for proper calculation of the momentum flux and surface roughness—will be supplied by an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). Sea surface temperature and downwelling radiation data are also necessary. Because merging of multiple datastreams is required for the BAF calculations, these fluxes will be calculated in a post-processing step.
    • Ocean Meteorology
      Measurement of ocean surface temperature will be made using two possible instruments; a sea snake and infrared thermometers (IRT). The sea snake is an in situ device that provides an average temperature of the upper few mm of the ocean surface. To measure the ocean skin temperature remotely two IRTs will be mounted orthogonally to each other, one pointed up at 45 degrees (estimates sky radiation reflected from the ocean surface) and one pointed down toward the ocean surface at a 45 degree angle.

    Available Instrumentation for Land-Based Deployments Only

    Aerosols

    Clouds

    Radiometers

    Surface Meteorology