Initial Activities of the ARM NSA Site Scientist Team
Richardson, S., Bahrmann, C.P., Verlinde, J., Harrington, J.H., Clothiaux, E.E., Avramov, A.E., and Greenberg, S.D., The Pennsylvania State University
Thirteenth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting
In August 2002 the transition of the ARM NSA Site Scientist Team to Pennsylvania State University was complete. This poster provides an overview of the new SST and describes research, operations, and educational aspects of the PSU SST. Research: Since the beginning of this project in May of 2002 we have been working in several different directions with respect to the scientific applications of ARM NSA data. Radiation is the primary driving force for much of what occurs in the Arctic. Furthermore, the large spatial and temporal cloud cover that exists over Arctic regions exerts a strong influence on the radiative budget of the arctic surface and atmosphere. However, at this stage we still do not have a very good understanding of the basic, internal cloud processes in the arctic nor do we understand how large-scale systems modulate cloud cover, type, and cloud longevity. This lack of knowledge translates into a lack of accurate parameterizations in both cloud-scale, and large-scale, models. Because of these deficiencies, we are working on both large scale and small scale cloud processes. In particular work is being done to statistically quantify the various large-scale weather regimes that occur over the NSA and adjacent regions. The main thrust of this work is to examine whether certain cloud patterns, which occur regularly, are directly related to particular large-scale weather phenomenon. This analysis will determine if particular large-scale (i.e. synoptic scale) are related to a given cloudy regime. Following this work, mesoscale modeling of the cloud regimes over the NSA region will be performed using newest version of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. The model will be used to examine the interactions between heterogeneous surfaces, mesoscale regimes, and cloud types over the Arctic. In addition a comparison between the ETA MOLTS products and observed atmospheric structure over Barrow is being performed. The PSU NSA SST is using this work as a preliminary investigation to determine where to begin work on characterizing cloud properties from the measurements taken at the NSA that is, where are the greatest needs and where can the most advances be made. Operations: The NSA SST has assisted the operation of the NSA CART sites by developing new tools for assessing data availability from the Barrow and Atqasuk sites. These tools are used to assess the percentage of data available on the Barrow and Atqasuk R1 computer systems versus what is delivered daily to the ARM Data Quality server. The NSA SST has established a strong working relationship with the ARM Data Quality Office (DQO) to ensure that ARM NSA data continues to receive appropriate inspection and reporting. Education: The PSU NSA SST has extensively used ARM data in the undergraduate meteorology class entitled APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTERS TO METEOROLOGY. In this class meteorology students were introduced to a host of computer based applications and then allowed to develop operational web pages around these applications.
Note: This is the poster abstract presented at the meeting; an extended version was not provided by the author(s).
