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
Formation and evolution of tar balls from northwestern US wildfires
12 September 2018
Sedlacek, Arthur J; Kleinman, Larry
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Wildfires are major sources of organic and black carbon aerosol particles and tar balls -- a type of brown carbonaceous particle apparently unique to biomass burning -- are under-recognized constituents of wildfire emissions. To help quantify the contribution of biomass burning (BB) to aerosol radiative forcing, the U.S. Department [...]
Understanding the bubbly nature of cumulus convection
20 August 2018
Morrison, Hugh Clifton
Supported by:
Research area: Vertical Velocity
Recent observations and detailed, high-resolution numerical modeling studies have indicated the thermal-like, bubbling nature of moist convection. Using theoretical insights and high-resolution numerical modeling, researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Naval Postgraduate School developed a mathematical expression for the ascent rate of these thermals comprising convective [...]
Observing clouds in 4D with multi-view stereo photogrammetry
17 August 2018
Romps, David
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Distributions/Characterizations
Shallow cumulus clouds – the cotton-ball clouds that drift overhead on partly cloudy days – are hard to observe and, therefore, hard to model and predict. By deploying a 12-km-diameter ring of cameras, these clouds are now being observed in fine detail using stereo reconstruction.