Operations Updates
ARM Climate Research Facility Operations Update - February 15, 2007
This bimonthly report provides a brief summary of significant accomplishments and activities in the operations area of the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF).
Adieu to Niger, Guten Tag to Germany
The AMF decommissioning team poses for a group photo at the AMF site near the airport in Niamey.
At midnight January 7, 2007, the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) deployment in Niamey, Niger successfully concluded. For the next two weeks, the AMF decommissioning team packaged the AMF for subsequent uplift to Germany. Not only were AMF operations in Niamey a resounding success, but the data gathered from the deployment is already bearing fruit, with a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters in December. Dr. Anthony Slingo, Professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and lead scientist for the field campaign, expressed his thanks to the AMF Team, saying "this has been a deployment of the highest scientific value conducted with the highest professionalism. Well done to all!"
Kim Nitschke, AMF Site Operations Manager, traveled to Niamey to oversee the decommissioning activities and to congratulate the local team involved in the AMF's highly successful first deployment on foreign soil. An informal closeout ceremony was held for the Niamey community near the AMF deployment site at the local airport, as well a formal reception for those closely involved in the yearlong deployment. Nitschke had these words for everyone involved: "The reliability and quality of the data obtained has surpassed the expectations of many, primarily due to your dedication and professionalism." After receiving heartfelt goodbyes and best wishes from their African colleagues, the AMF decommissioning team departed for home.
Carefully situated concrete pads stand ready to support a collection of portable shelters soon to arrive at the AMF deployment site in Germany's Black Forest.
Meanwhile, preparations for the AMF deployment in the Black Forest continued with the arrival of the first shipping container full of support equipment in late December. With the AMF site infrastructure nearly completed, final work on the walkways and environmental shelters took place throughout January. The AMF install team arrives in early March to set up the instruments and communications systems, and conduct radiosonde operations training for locally hired personnel. The Convective and Orographically Induced Precipitation Study is scheduled to begin in April and will last until January 2008.
Radar Looking Good with New Reflector
A new corner reflector (too small to be seen in this photo) on the WACR calibration tower helped to correct problems related to signal interference.
As reported in July 2005, the W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) is a 95-GHz system designed for a unique purpose - monitoring the radar returns of insects in the lowest 5 km of the atmosphere. This data is used to remove "noise" from the millimeter wavelength cloud radar (MMCR) return signals at the ACRF Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. Soon after the WACR began collected data at SGP site in December 2005, its radio frequency (RF) unit was removed for use in the new ARM Mobile Facility. With a new RF unit installed and a subsequent calibration problem solved, the radar is once again in action at the SGP site.
Several months after installing the new RF unit in the WACR, calibration issues presented an obstacle to operations until the source of the problem was identified: the proximity of trees to the calibration tower, located across the road to the north of the SGP Central Facility. To address this issue, a new, larger corner reflector was acquired and installed on the tower, and the RF unit was sent back to the manufacturer (ProSensing) in late August 2006 for additional software work to permit successful calibration. In the meantime, part of the tower was raised to further reduce ground clutter.
The WACR was successfully reinstalled in October 2006, with the detailed radar display featuring multiple screen modes for various health and status readings, and for the standard 1-hour scrolling display of atmospheric response. ACRF operations staff reported fine atmospheric detail clearly visible on the computer screen, displaying rain signals before drops even reached the ground. Data comparisons between the WACR and MMCR are underway to ensure proper alignment of the WACR transmitter and MMCR beam.
