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Research Flights Completed for Biomass Burning Field Campaign
The Gulstream-1 heads toward a smoke plume during a research flight for the Biomass Burning Observation Project. In late October, the ARM Aerial Facility wrapped up a busy season of research flights for the Biomass Burning Observation Project, using a comprehensive payload of 35 instruments to measure aerosols from both wildfire and agricultural burns. In…
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MAGIC Takes a Bow
As the Horizon Spirit sailed into port in Los Angeles at the end of September, the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARM Climate Research Facility notched another milestone for climate science. In obtaining nearly a year’s worth of atmospheric measurements while crisscrossing the Pacific Ocean, ARM’s second mobile facility, or AMF2, completed the first-ever full-scale deployment…
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New Climate Research Site in the Azores Fills Critical Data Gap
On October 1, the ARM Climate Research Facility began providing the research community with continuous data about clouds, aerosols, energy, and precipitation from Graciosa Island in the Azores, Portugal. Installed by a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory, this newest outpost is broadly referred to as the Eastern North Atlantic, or ENA, site, and mirrors…
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Small Footprint, Big Shoes: Stepping Out at Nauru
Kim Nitschke (white shirt) joined members of the Nauru Government for a walk down memory lane at the ARM Nauru site to help commemorate the site decommissioning, recognized at a closing reception on September 23, 2013. After 15 years, the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARM observation site at Nauru Island is in the history books,…
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Climate Data Now Flowing from Oliktok, Alaska
Scientists seeking answers to questions about Arctic climate change will soon have a bevy of new data to mine from the North Slope of Alaska. In mid-September, a field team led by Sandia National Laboratories finished installing an initial collection of instruments at Oliktok Point, Alaska, for a new Department of Energy climate observation station.…
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Popular Science’s Brilliant 10 Includes ARM Radar Meteorologist
To the casual observer, radars for weather and climate research silently go about their business, sending pulses of energy into the sky to bounce off of clouds and other particles overhead. The return signals feed into a computer where they are converted to data. Simple. Scott Collis (image courtesy Argonne National Laboratory) But Scott Collis…
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From Shining Sea to Tropical Rain Forest
On June 30, the first ARM Mobile Facility completed a one-year deployment at Cape Cod National Seashore for the Two-Column Aerosol Project. On the heels of this highly visible and successful collaboration, the facility underwent some upgrades and recalibration before being packed and prepared for its voyage to the Amazonian rainforest the first week of…
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Aerosol Research Heats Up During Summer Fire Season
This summer, Department of Energy researchers are maneuvering a high-tech research aircraft into the plumes of wildfires in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Tennessee to collect samples of smoke near the source (new) and downwind (aged). Scientists involved in the Biomass Burning Observation Project, or BBOP, will analyze both new and aged samples to study…
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Taking the Heat in the U.S. Great Plains
When the National Weather Service released their predictions for the summer of 2013, it was difficult to miss the zone of warm colors centered over the U.S. Great Plains. Higher than average temperatures are expected in this part of the country. This comes as no surprise, especially after Oklahoma registered record-breaking heat last summer. Scientists have known…
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New England Winter No Match for Science on the Cape
Snow sticking to the sides of these playful statues in Hyannis perfectly shows the effects of blowing snow in early February. Winter snowfall in the Boston area is not uncommon, and in February they got it in spades—just in time for the second phase of research flights for the Two-Column Aerosol Project at Cape Cod,…