Atmospheric Observatories

Three heavily instrumented fixed-location atmospheric observatories that represent a broad range of climate conditions are operated by the ARM Climate Research Facility to gather massive amounts of climate data. These are:

• Southern Great Plains (SGP) – centered near Lamont, Oklahoma, United States
• North Slope of Alaska (NSA) – centered at Barrow, Alaska, United States
• Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) – located on Graciosa Island, Azores, Portugal.

In addition to the fixed-location observatories, ARM also offers both mobile and aerial facilities:

• ARM Mobile Facility (AMF): Three AMF are used by scientists to obtain atmospheric measurements, similar to those at the fixed-location observatories, for periods of about a year at a time anywhere in the world. The third mobile facility is currently undergoing an extended deployment at Oliktok Point, Alaska.
• ARM Aerial Facility (AAF): The AAF obtains aerial measurements in the skies above the fixed-location and AMF observatories. Multiple aircraft platforms, including the Gulfstream-159, unmanned aerial systems, and tethered balloons are available to researchers to address a wide range of science requirements.

Data from past deployments of the AMF and AAF, and the former Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) observatory, are a valuable asset to researchers worldwide and are easily accessible from the ARM Data Center through Data Discovery.