The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility provides continuous field measurements of atmospheric data from around the world, serving as a key contributor to national and international climate research efforts. A multi-laboratory effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, ARM’s mission is to advance our understanding of cloud, aerosol, precipitation and radiation processes, and provide the massive amounts of data needed to better represent these phenomena in global-scale models.

ARM data are collected from three fixed, or stationary, atmospheric observatories — Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska and Eastern North Atlantic — that represent the broad range of global climate conditions. ARM also offers its users three mobile facilities, as well as an aerial facility.

Argonne manages the Southern Great Plains and ARM Mobile Facility 3 observatories:

Southern Great Plains (SGP), a fixed observatory located near Lamont, Oklahoma, is the world’s largest and most extensive climate research facility. SGP is equipped with nearly 200 instruments that help users better visualize the atmosphere and, more specifically, the vertical distribution of clouds. The vast amount of quality data and observations collected at the site are freely accessible to climate researchers around the globe to help develop and correct global climate and weather models.<

ARM Mobile Facility 3 (AMF3), like all of ARM’s mobile facilities, is designed to help researchers explore questions beyond those addressed by ARM’s fixed atmospheric observatories. Scientists can propose field campaigns, typically lasting a year, to collect atmospheric and climate data from under-sampled regions around the world. AMF3 has operated out of Oliktok Point, Alaska, since 2013, and will soon move to the Southeastern United States for a five-year deployment.

All the data ARM provides is free to the public and can be accessed through its data portal https://​adc​.arm​.gov/​d​i​s​c​o​v​e​ry/#/.