Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
ARMThe Southern Great Plains (SGP) site was the first field measurement site established by DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility, via Flickr
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 atmospheric research efforts. A multi-laboratory effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, ARM provides researchers with strategically located atmospheric observatories and data to advance basic science questions for understanding the Earth’s atmosphere. ARM data are being used to improve the representation of clouds, aerosols, and their interactions with Earth’s radiant energy in earth system 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 Bankhead National Forest observatories:
Southern Great Plains (SGP), a fixed observatory located near Lamont, Oklahoma, was the first field measurement site established by ARM. 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 researchers around the globe to help develop atmospheric models.
Bankhead National Forest (BNF), 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 data from under-sampled regions around the world. BNF will operate for five years in northwestern Alabama, where it will collect data to support research about clouds, aerosols, and land-atmosphere interactions, which will lead to improvements in earth system models.
All the data ARM provides is free to the public and can be accessed through its data portal https://adc.arm.gov/discovery/#/.