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Now We’re Cruising
Editor’s note: As part of the preparations for the upcoming Marine ARM GPCI Investigations of Clouds (MAGIC) field campaign, principal investigator Ernie Lewis shares his news of the deployment installation. I was in Los Angeles again last week to see the successful installation of the MAGIC instruments aboard the Horizon Spirit! It was great to…
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Launch with Larry
The Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) is now underway, and the instrumentation at the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) is up and running at the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Highlands Center. The site is an excellent place for observing both clouds and aerosol (small particles ranging in size from nanometers to micrometers that are suspended in the…
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Raindrops and the Doppler Effect
Editor’s note: As part of the preparations for the upcoming Marine ARM GPCI Investigations of Clouds (MAGIC) field campaign, principal investigator Ernie Lewis discusses how radars use the Doppler effect to determine raindrop sizes and speeds. This illustration of the Doppler effect shows the change of wavelength caused by the motion of the source (in…
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Alphabet Soup: Radars for MAGIC
Editor’s note: As part of the preparations for the upcoming Marine ARM GPCI Investigations of Clouds (MAGIC) field campaign, principal investigator Ernie Lewis provided information about the types of radars that will be used during the campaign. The aerosol observing system (left) and AMF2 Operations van (right) will join a Ka-band radar and a specially…
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Science Lesson Starts in the Yard
Madie Houdeshell and David Breedlove each hold a weather balloon data transmitter called a radiosonde.What began with the discovery of an interesting “white thing” in Madie Houdeshell’s yard led to a science assembly for fourth and fifth grade students at Udall Elementary School in Kansas. They learned all about weather balloons, why they are used,…
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Azores Welcomes News of U.S. Science Commitment
Kim Nitschke, Azores and ARM Mobile Facility Site ManagerIn early March, ARM Mobile Facility Manager Kim Nitschke, from Los Alamos National Laboratory, reconnected with officials and collaborators in the Azores. His visit was prompted by the ARM announcement to secure a permanent atmospheric research facility on Graciosa Island, due largely to the successful AMF deployment…
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Open Access Publishing: The Door Is Ajar, but the Hinge Needs Oil
Today at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, the EGU media and communications office hosted a debate called “Open Science and the Future of Publishing.” Not being well versed in the issue, I figured this was an excellent opportunity to get up to speed. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one, as the room…
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Leadership Position for Atmospheric System Research (ASR)
UPDATE: The announcement for this position will be posted in a few weeks on the Office of Personnel Management website and will also be accessible from the DOE website. According to new federal rules, and unlike past hiring processes, this announcement will be posted for only 10 days. This will be a federal position at…
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Field Trip for Oklahoma Grad Students
Dave Turner explains the measurements obtained by a variety of radiometers at the SGP site.Editor’s note: Dave Turner is a scientist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma. He was heavily involved in the development of several ARM instruments—notably the AERI and Raman lidar—and is a longtime user of ARM data. In early…
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MAGIC Test Run to Hawaii
From the foredeck of the Horizon Spirit cargo ship, Mike Reynolds prepares to launch a weather balloon, substituting a vegetable for the radiosonde package.Editor’s note: As part of the preparations for the upcoming Marine ARM GPCI Investigations of Clouds (MAGIC) field campaign, principal investigator Ernie Lewis, AMF2 site manager Brad Orr, and co-investigator Mike Reynolds…