Members of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s science team are major contributors to radiation and cloud research. Scientists and investigators using ARM publish about 150 peer-reviewed journal articles per year, and ARM data are used in many studies published by other scientific organizations. These documented research efforts represent tangible evidence of ARM’s contribution to advances in almost all areas of atmospheric radiation and cloud research.
Research Highlights
Recent Highlights
Diffusion in large organic aerosols influences growth of ultrafine atmospheric particles
18 May 2020
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
The dynamics of how aerosol particles grow and their size evolves, along with how they affect Earth’s climate, are poorly understood. New research on secondary organic aerosols formed from oxidation of isoprene—a volatile organic compound released from many plants and trees—provided quantitative insights into how slow diffusion inside viscous organic particles [...]
Bridging the model-data divide for shallow convection
15 May 2020
Gustafson, William I.; Vogelmann, Andrew M.
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Distributions/Characterizations
Combining large-scale atmospheric models and observations presents a long-standing challenge for scientists because of the inherent mismatch between different space and time scales. For example, shallow convective clouds—low, puffy clouds that reflect sunlight back to space—are so small that typical atmospheric models cannot resolve them. The U.S. Department of Energy’s [...]
Afternoon convection favored over drier or wetter land surface depending on atmospheric state
14 May 2020
Williams, Ian N.
Supported by:
Research area: General Circulation and Single Column Models/Parameterizations
A strong negative feedback of dry soil on convective initiation was found in atmospheric states supporting deep boundary layers. Convection and precipitation show positive relationships to surface evapotranspiration only in more humid, thermally stratified atmospheres.