Operations Updates
ARM Climate Research Facility Operations Update - January 15, 2008
This bimonthly report provides a brief summary of significant accomplishments and activities in the operations area of the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF).
Future of User Facility Discussed at Fall Workshop
As a national user facility, the ACRF is accessible to scientists around the globe for interdisciplinary research related to earth systems. In a continuing effort to meet users' scientific needs, as well as to provide measurable progress related to the U.S. Department of Energy's climate change research missions, ACRF sponsored a "User Workshop" on October 31 and November 1, 2007. Thirty-four scientific experts, including both ARM and non-ARM users, took part in the workshop to assess how the ACRF might expand and enhance its observational network for providing data to improve climate models. Discussions during the workshop resulted in recommendations in the following topic areas: new fixed site locales; two more mobile facilities; expansion of the Aerial Vehicles Program; and a number of enhancements related to data products.
Expertise at the workshop encompassed all research areas of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, including remote sensing, process studies, cloud system modeling, general circulation modeling, and decision support. The workshop was divided into three sessions, and each session consisted of four separate groups focused on the topics mentioned above. Participants were asked to provide recommendations for each area and priorities for an ACRF expansion that would enable observations of key atmospheric processes involving radiative transfer in the atmosphere—clouds, aerosols, and water vapor properties—as well as carbon cycle measurements. The broad range of participants and perspectives resulted in a varied and balanced discussion about future plans for the user facility. More details about the workshop and specific recommendations are available in the full report.
Participants at the ACRF User Workshop recommended a number of new fixed research locations; the top five are shown here.
ARM Mobile Facility Completes Field Campaign in Germany
Researchers will study severe precipitation events that occurred in August and October 2007, stalling Rhine River traffic and causing flooding in portions of Germany. (Image source: DW-WORLD.DE)
Operations at the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) site in Heselbach, Germany, officially came to a close on January 1, 2008. As one of several measurement "supersites" situated throughout the Black Forest region for the Convective and Orographically Induced Precipitation Study (COPS), the AMF obtained data continuously beginning in March 2007. Measurements obtained by the AMF during the field campaign encompassed the entire life cycle of precipitation—from pre-convective conditions to the development of clouds, followed by the onset, development, and organization of precipitation. The AMF site also hosted a number of guest instruments for supplemental field campaigns throughout the deployment. The combination of scientific expertise from the numerous participating countries, as well as collaboration among related international programs, provided a unique opportunity to obtain comprehensive, high-quality data sets usable for model validation as well as for data assimilation.
Based on observations of the development of clouds and precipitation from Saharan dust outbreaks that occurred several times during the COPS period, scientists have a unique opportunity to study aerosol-cloud-precipitation microphysics in great detail. They are also studying parameterizations of the atmospheric boundary layer, convection, and cloud microphysics with 4D synergetic observations, as well as the performance of an ensemble of convection permitting models, which can be evaluated in detail for the first time. Particularly, severe precipitation events, which led to flooding in Switzerland and southern Germany during COPS, will be the focus of ensuing research.
