AOS

aos: Aerosol Observing System

The aerosol observing system (AOS) is the primary platform for in situ aerosol measurements at Earth’s surface. Each AOS has a different complement of instruments, which are selected to ensure the best measurements at each deployment site.

The AOS measures aerosol optical properties to better understand how particles interact with solar radiation and influence the Earth’s radiation balance. These measurements are useful for calculating parameters used in radiative forcing calculations, such as the aerosol single scattering albedo, asymmetry parameter, mass scattering efficiency, and hygroscopic growth. Measurements made with the AOS form a long-term record at the ARM fixed sites. Shorter measurement records are available from mobile deployments in a wide variety of geographical regions. These measurements are valuable for:

identifying long-term changes in aerosol properties
identifying atmospheric processes controlling aerosol life cycle and their influence on clouds
providing experimental data for developing and testing atmospheric climate models.

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Measurements

Aerosol absorption	Aerosol particle size	Backscattered radiation
Aerosol backscattered radiation	Aerosol particle size distribution	Cloud condensation nuclei
Aerosol concentration	Aerosol scattering	Particle number concentration

Locations

Fixed
AMF1
AMF2
AMF3

Components

acsm: Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor	aeth: Aethalometer
aosmet: Meteorological Measurements associated with the Aerosol Observing System	aps: Aerodynamic Particle Sizer
caps-pmex: Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift Extinction Monitor	ccn: Cloud Condensation Nuclei Particle Counter
clap: Continuous Light Absorption Photometer	co-analyzer: Carbon Monoxide Analyzer
cpc: Condensation Particle Counter	ghg: Greenhouse Gas Monitor
htdma: Humidified Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer	nephelometer: Nephelometer
nox: Nitrogen Oxides Monitor	ozone: Ozone Monitor
pass: Photoacoustic Soot Spectrometer	pils: Particle Into Liquid Sampler
psap: Particle Soot Absorption Photometer	ptr-ms: Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer
smps: Scanning mobility particle sizer	so2: Sulfur Dioxide Monitor
sp2: Single Particle Soot Photometer	tap: Tricolor Absorption Photometer
tracegas: Trace gas concentrations	uhsas: Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer

Active Instrument Locations

Facility Name	Instrument Start Date
External Data (satellites and others)	1998-01-01
Graciosa Island, Azores, Portugal	2013-08-15
Oliktok Point, Alaska; AMF3	2016-06-21
Lamont, OK (Extended and Co-located with C1)	2016-10-24

Related Publications

2020

Gallo F, J Uin, S Springston, J Wang, G Zheng, C Kuang, R Wood, E Azevedo, A McComiskey, F Mei, A Theisen, J Kyrouac, and A Aiken. 2020. "Identifying a regional aerosol baseline in the eastern North Atlantic using collocated measurements and a mathematical algorithm to mask high-submicron-number-concentration aerosol events." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20(12), 10.5194/acp-20-7553-2020.

Mouchel-Vallon C, J Lee-Taylor, A Hodzic, P Artaxo, B Aumont, M Camredon, D Gurarie, J Jimenez, D Lenschow, S Martin, J Nascimento, J Orlando, B Palm, J Shilling, M Shrivastava, and S Madronich. 2020. "Exploration of oxidative chemistry and secondary organic aerosol formation in the Amazon during the wet season: explicit modeling of the Manaus urban plume with GECKO-A." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20(10), 10.5194/acp-20-5995-2020.

Iguchi T, S Rutledge, W Tao, T Matsui, B Dolan, S Lang, and J Barnum. 2020. "Impacts of aerosol and environmental conditions on maritime and continental deep convective systems using a bin microphysical model." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125(12), e2019JD030952, 10.1029/2019JD030952.

DeMott PJ and TC Hill. 2020. Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) Measurements of Ice Nucleating Particles Field Campaign Report. Ed. by Robert Stafford, ARM user facility. DOE/SC-ARM-20-006.

Wang Y, S Xie, S Tang, and W Lin. 2020. "Evaluation of an Improved Convective Triggering Function: Observational Evidence and SCM Tests." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125(11), e2019JD031651, 10.1029/2019JD031651.

Zheng X, B Xi, X Dong, T Logan, Y Wang, and P Wu. 2020. "Investigation of aerosol-cloud interactions under different absorptive aerosol regimes using Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) southern Great Plains (SGP) ground-based measurements." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20(6), 10.5194/acp-20-3483-2020.

Lubin D, D Zhang, I Silber, R Scott, P Kalogeras, A Battaglia, D Bromwich, M Cadeddu, E Eloranta, A Fridlind, A Frossard, K Hines, S Kneifel, W Leaitch, W Lin, J Nicolas, H Powers, P Quinn, P Rowe, L Russell, S Sharma, J Verlinde, and A Vogelmann. 2020. "AWARE: The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(7), 10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0278.1.

2019

Shen Y, A Virkkula, A Ding, K Luoma, H Keskinen, P Aalto, X Chi, X Qi, W Nie, X Huang, T Petäjä, M Kulmala, and V Kerminen. 2019. "Estimating cloud condensation nuclei number concentrations using aerosol optical properties: role of particle number size distribution and parameterization." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19(24), 10.5194/acp-19-15483-2019.

Uin J, A Aiken, M Dubey, C Kuang, M Pekour, C Salwen, A Sedlacek, G Senum, S Smith, J Wang, T Watson, and S Springston. 2019. "Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerosol Observing Systems (AOS) for Surface-Based In-Situ Atmospheric Aerosol and Trace Gas Measurements." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 36(12), 10.1175/JTECH-D-19-0077.1.
Research Highlight

Li J, H Chen, Z Li, P Wang, X Fan, W He, and J Zhang. 2019. "Analysis of Low-level Temperature Inversions and Their Effects on Aerosols in the Lower Atmosphere." Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 36(11), 10.1007/s00376-019-9018-9.

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