Established in 1989, the ARM Program is the Department of Energy’s largest global change research program. Eight national laboratories and numerous government agencies, universities, private companies, and foreign organizations contribute to its science and infrastructure using a complex network of web servers. While this distribution successfully focuses each server on a specific area of the…

A biology class at Barrow High School follows along as their teacher checks out the North Slope of Alaska DVD archive. ARM file photo. As an extension of the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Climate Change: Science and Traditional Knowledge kiosk developed by the ARM Climate Research Facility Education and Outreach staff, a DVD archive…

Trying to describe the ARM Climate Research Facility to an educated audience is hard enough; imagine explaining it to someone who knows next to nothing about atmospheric science! Judges of the 2005 Communicator Awards print media competition apparently got the message, as they gave awards to four ARM Climate Research Facility entries in various categories.…

The 183 GHz radiometer, protected inside an insulated enclosure (inset), is installed on the roof of the primary instrument shelter at Barrow. To prevent snow from accumulating on the mylar window, a blower mounted beneath the radiometer directs air through a duct to a standard Y-shaped fitting mounted on top of the radiometer. ARM file…

During the SGP site audit conducted in April 2005, a member of the Continuous Quality Improvement Program team is accompanied by a local jackrabbit at the Ringwood Extended Facility. ARM file photo. The Continuous Quality Improvement Program (CQIP) implemented by the ARM Program in 1998 requires annual audits and inspection visits to each of the…

Extended Facilities at the SGP are spaced far enough apart that they do not have overlapping views overhead. This separation allows the infrared thermometers to obtain specific measurements for individual cloud cases. ARM file image. To help ARM scientists analyze cloud temperatures and infer cloud heights over the ARM Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains…

The “skydeck” at Barrow shows how the instrument platforms can get very crowded during peak experimental periods. ARM file photo. Two things are critical for conducting scientific research: adequate equipment and power. This is especially true in the Arctic, where average winter temperatures hover around -30 degrees Celsius, and access to additional resources is limited.…

Talk about a change of scenery. Scientists replaced Harley riders as the 15th Annual ARM Science Team Meeting began March 14-18, 2005, in Daytona Beach, Florida, just as thousands of motorcycles involved in Daytona’s 64th Annual “Bike Week” roared out of town. Almost 300 participants from 10 countries came together for this once-a-year opportunity to…

SuomiNet is an international network of global positioning system (GPS) receivers, configured and managed to generate near real-time estimates of precipitable water vapor in the atmosphere, total electron content in the ionosphere, and other meteorological and geodetic information. Last fall, scientific collaborators at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Forecast Systems Laboratory* identified a…

On a given day, the ARM Climate Research Facility Data Management Facility (DMF) handles anywhere from 2.4 to 2.9 gigabytes of raw atmospheric data collected by instruments from sites around the globe. Once at the DMF, the data is processed into meaningful data sets that scientists can use to conduct their research. The DMF will…