ARM Archive Sets Record for User Accounts

 
Published: 31 January 2007

The ARM Archive stores and distributes the large quantities of data resulting from routine operations and scientific field campaigns conducted at the ARM sites. Scientists use these data to study atmospheric radiation balance and cloud feedback processes, which are critical to the understanding of global climate change. In the first quarter of FY07 (October through December 2006), the ARM recorded the largest number of Archive users than any other quarter on record—961!

The U.S. Department of Energy requires national user facilities to report facility use by total visitor days and facility to track actual visitors and active user research computer accounts. Historical data show an apparent relationship between the total number of users and the “size” of field campaigns, or intensive operational periods (IOP). Larger field campaigns draw increased site facility resources, which are reflected by the number of site visits and site visit days, research accounts, and device accounts. These types of users typically collect and analyze data in near-real time for an ongoing site-specific field campaign. To track Archive accounts, however, an individual is counted as only one unique user per site, even though he or she may open and close an account several times to obtain different data at one or more sites. The Archive accounts represent persistent (year-to-year) ARM data users that often mine from the entire collection of ARM data, which mostly includes routine data from the fixed and mobile sites, as well as cumulative IOP data sets. The number of Archive data users continues to steadily increase, independent of field campaign size.