The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility provides tailored datastreams known as ARM Best Estimate (ARMBE) data products for use in the evaluation of global earth system models. Two updated ARMBE data sets from ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory are now available.
Data from the ARM Best Estimate Cloud Radiation (ARMBECLDRAD) product, which provides cloud and radiation quantities, have been reprocessed for the years 2014 through 2016. In addition, ARMBECLDRAD and the ARM Best Estimate Atmospheric Measurements (ARMBEATM) product, which contains basic atmospheric quantities, have been extended to include the years 2017 and 2018.
The 2014–2016 ARMBECLDRAD data were reprocessed with updated data from the Radiative Flux Analysis (RADFLUXANAL) and Data Quality Assessment for ARM Radiation Data (QCRAD) value-added products. The reprocessed data also include cloud fraction from the Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (KAZRARSCL) value-added product, which was missing from the previously released version.
An ARMBE product assembles into one data set quantities that are both well observed by ARM over many years and are often used in model evaluation. ARMBE products consist of hourly averages and thus have temporal resolution comparable to a typical resolution used in earth system model output.
Scientists can use the updated SGP ARMBEATM and ARMBECLDRAD data now. Find more information about ARMBE data products on the ARMBE web page and in Xie et al. (2010).
Feedback and use of the data are always welcomed. If you have questions/suggestions, please contact Yuying Zhang or Shaocheng Xie.
Access the SGP data sets for ARMBEATM and ARMBECLDRAD in the ARM Data Center. (Go here to create an account to download the data.)
To cite these data, please use doi:10.5439/1333748 for ARMBEATM and doi:10.5439/1333228 for ARMBECLDRAD.
Reference: Xie S, RB McCoy, SA Klein, RT Cederwall, WJ Wiscombe, EE Clothiaux, KL Gaustad, J Golaz, S Hall, MP Jensen, KL Johnson, Y Lin, CN Long, JH Mather, RA McCord, SA McFarlane, G Palanisamy, Y Shi, and DD Turner. 2010. “ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data – A new data product for climate studies.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91(1), https://doi.org/10.1175/2009bams2891.1.
# # #ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories.