Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 5
Book Description
This issue of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM Program) monthly newsletter is about the ARM Program goal to improve scientific understanding of the interactions of sunlight (solar radiation) with the atmosphere, then incorporate this understanding into computer models of climate change. To model climate accurately all around the globe, a variety of data must be collected from many locations on Earth. For its Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) sites, ARM chose locations in the US Southern Great Plains, the North Slope of Alaska, and the Tropical Western Pacific Ocean to represent different climate types around the world. In this newsletter they consider the North Slope of Alaska site, with locations at Barrow and Atqasuk, Alaska.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 2
Book Description
The primary objective of this USDA program is to provide information to the agricultural community about the geographic and temporal climatology of UV-B radiation. Scientists also use the data to determine changes in stratospheric ozone levels, cloud cover, and aerosols as they pertain to UV-B radiation and to improve the understanding of factors that control transmission of UV-B radiation. Advances have been made in areas of agriculture, human health effects, ecosystem studies, and atmospheric science. ARM Program personnel are excited about being a part of such a worthwhile effort.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 3
Book Description
The subject of this newsletter is the ARM unmanned aerospace vehicle program. The ARM Program's focus is on climate research, specifically research related to solar radiation and its interaction with clouds. The SGP CART site contains highly sophisticated surface instrumentation, but even these instruments cannot gather some crucial climate data from high in the atmosphere. The Department of Energy and the Department of Defense joined together to use a high-tech, high-altitude, long-endurance class of unmanned aircraft known as the unmanned aerospace vehicle (UAV). A UAV is a small, lightweight airplane that is controlled remotely from the ground. A pilot sits in a ground-based cockpit and flies the aircraft as if he were actually on board. The UAV can also fly completely on its own through the use of preprogrammed computer flight routines. The ARM UAV is fitted with payload instruments developed to make highly accurate measurements of atmospheric flux, radiance, and clouds. Using a UAV is beneficial to climate research in many ways. The UAV puts the instrumentation within the environment being studied and gives scientists direct measurements, in contrast to indirect measurements from satellites orbiting high above Earth. The data collected by UAVs can be used to verify and calibrate measurements and calculated values from satellites, therefore making satellite data more useful and valuable to researchers.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 2
Book Description
This issue of the ARM facilities newsletter discusses the Spring 2000 cloud intensive observation period, March 1--21, 2000. The month of March brings researchers to the SGP CART site to participate in the Spring 2000 Cloud IOP. The purpose is to gather data about the three-dimensional structure and distribution of clouds over the CART site. This effort will help to produce a more accurate representation of the clouds and their influence on weather and climate for use in computer modeling.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 2
Book Description
This is the third water vapor IOP and it will focus on the lower portions of the atmosphere. Again, scientists will work to achieve absolute calibrations of water vapor instrumentation. For this purpose, several instruments will be deployed, and measurements will be compared. Instruments to be used include radiosondes, Raman lidar, chilled-mirror hygrometers, surface meteorological observation station (SMOS) towers, a variety of microwave radiometers, and global positioning systems (GPS). The current experiment has two goals. The first is to characterize the accuracy of the water vapor measurements, especially the daily operational observations being made around the clock in the lower levels of the atmosphere at the CART site. The second goal is to develop techniques for improving the accuracy of these observations in order to obtain the best possible water vapor measurements under a wide range of atmospheric conditions.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 5
Book Description
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM Program) is sending a copy of the ARM Video, an education overview of their program. In the video you will see and hear ARM scientists describe the importance of studying climate and climate change. It also contains a tour of some ARM sites and a look at state-of-the-art meteorological instrumentation, along with background information about the radiation budget and the complexity of climate modeling. The video was produced by the US Department of Energy.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 5
Book Description
This Atmospheric radiation measurement program facilities newsletter covers the following topics: The Raman lidar at the SGP central facility is receiving upgrades to its environmental controls; The instrument tower at Okmulgee State Park is receiving upgrades to prevent Turkey Vultures from roosting on the booms.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 3
Book Description
This Monthly newsletter discusses the following topic: New Atmospheric Profiling Instrument Added to SGP CART Suite--A new atmospheric profiling instrument at the SGP CART site is giving researchers an additional useful data stream. The new instrument is a microwave radiometer profiler (MWRP) developed by Radiometrics Corporation.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 2
Book Description
For improved safety in and around the ARM SGP CART site, the ARM Program recently purchased and installed an aircraft detection radar system at the central facility near Lamont, Oklahoma. The new system will enhance safety measures already in place at the central facility. The SGP CART site, especially the central facility, houses several instruments employing laser technology. These instruments are designed to be eye-safe and are not a hazard to personnel at the site or pilots of low-flying aircraft over the site. However, some of the specialized equipment brought to the central facility by visiting scientists during scheduled intensive observation periods (IOPs) might use higher-power laser beams that point skyward to make measurements of clouds or aerosols in the atmosphere. If these beams were to strike the eye of a person in an aircraft flying above the instrument, damage to the person's eyesight could result. During IOPs, CART site personnel have obtained Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to temporarily close the airspace directly over the central facility and keep aircraft from flying into the path of the instrument's laser beam. Information about the blocked airspace is easily transmitted to commercial aircraft, but that does not guarantee that the airspace remains completely plane-free. For this reason, during IOPs in which non-eye-safe lasers were in use in the past, ARM technicians watched for low-flying aircraft in and around the airspace over the central facility. If the technicians spotted such an aircraft, they would manually trigger a safety shutter to block the laser beam's path skyward until the plane had cleared the area.
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