ARM Best Estimate Data Now Available for CACTI, COMBLE Campaigns

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility provides tailored datastreams known as ARM Best Estimate (ARMBE) data products for use in the evaluation of global earth system models.

ARMBE data sets are now available for the Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign and the Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE). CACTI took place from October 2018 through April 2019 in Argentina’s Sierras de Córdoba mountain range. COMBLE ran from December 2019 through May 2020 in northern Norway.

The left image is from the ARM CACTI deployment in Argentina, and the right image is from the COMBLE deployment in Norway. — The first ARM Mobile Facility (AMF1) collected data in Argentina, left, for the 2018–2019 Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign. Later in 2019, ARM sent AMF1 to the Norwegian island of Andøya, right, for the Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE).

The ARMBE data sets available for both CACTI and COMBLE are ARM Best Estimate Atmospheric Measurements (ARMBEATM) and ARM Best Estimate Cloud Radiation (ARMBECLDRAD). ARMBEATM contains basic atmospheric quantities, and ARMBECLDRAD provides cloud and radiation quantities.

The top plots are labeled "Relative humidity scaled, by total column amount from MWR, from sounding in height coordinate (%)," and the bottom plots are labeled at the top, "Precipitation rate (mm/hour)." — Both pairs of plots show ARMBEATM relative humidity, top, and surface precipitation, bottom. The left set is for the CACTI campaign from January through April 2019. The right set is for COMBLE from January through April 2020.

An ARMBE product assembles quantities that are both well observed by ARM over many years and are often used in model evaluation into one data set. ARMBE products consist of hourly averages and thus have temporal resolution comparable to a typical resolution used in earth system model output.

Scientists can use the CACTI and COMBLE ARMBE data sets now. Find more information about ARMBE data products on the ARMBE web page and in Xie et al. (2010).

The top plots are labeled "CloudFraction (%) ARMBE," and the bottom plots are labeled "Cloud detection (color) and cloud base (white)" with the datastream name. — Plots show ARMBECLDRAD cloud fraction, top, derived from the Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (KAZRARSCL) product, bottom. The left plots are from March 1, 2019, during the CACTI campaign. The right plots are from April 4, 2020, during COMBLE.

Feedback and use of the data are always welcomed. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Yuying Zhang or Shaocheng Xie.

Users can access the ARMBE data sets from the ARM Data Center. (Go here to create an account to download the data.)

To cite the data, please use doi:10.5439/1333748 for ARMBEATM and doi:10.5439/1333228 for ARMBECLDRAD.

Reference: Xie S, RB McCoy, SA Klein, RT Cederwall, WJ Wiscombe, EE Clothiaux, KL Gaustad, J Golaz, S Hall, MP Jensen, KL Johnson, Y Lin, CN Long, JH Mather, RA McCord, SA McFarlane, G Palanisamy, Y Shi, and DD Turner. 2010. “ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data – A new data product for climate studies.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91(1), 10.1175/2009bams2891.1.

ARM Best Estimate Data Now Available for CACTI, COMBLE Campaigns

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