Workshops Begin for ARM Megasites

While the mission of the ARM Climate Research Facility has not changed, it is undergoing a reconfiguration to better support the linking of ARM measurements with process-oriented models. The facility reconfiguration, presented at the recent Atmospheric System Research meeting, will involve three main components:

• Augmenting measurements at the ARM Southern Great Plains site and the two sites on the North Slope of Alaska, while ending measurements in the Tropical Western Pacific
• Beginning routine model simulations associated with the SGP and NSA megasites
• Developing strategies to better link ARM measurements and high-resolution models.

The most time-sensitive of these areas is the modification of the measurement strategy at the SGP. ARM is working toward operations of the reconfigured SGP facility by early 2016. This will require making decisions about any changes in siting at the SGP (e.g., moving extended facilities) by August of this year. Modeling and analysis strategies will be developed over a longer period of time as strategies are tested and as experience is gained with the new measurement configuration.

As part of the process for refining the reconfiguration strategy, there will be a series of workshops. The first workshop, focused on the SGP site, will consider a set of guiding questions:

• What are key science questions or objectives relevant to the SGP region that are poorly constrained now, but could be addressed with a more complete observation suite and associated modeling activities?
• For the science questions identified, what are the key observable parameters required?
• What modeling strategy would be effective to support these additional measurements toward addressing these science objectives?

If there is interest in contributing to the discussion, short (1-2 page) whitepapers addressing these questions can be submitted to Lynne Roeder (Lynne.Roeder@pnnl.gov). Input received by April 25 will be synthesized as input to the workshop. Questions can also be addressed to Lynne. A draft report from the workshop will be made available in early July.