Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Facilities Newsletter, April 2000 PDF Download

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Languages : en
Pages : 5

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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.

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Winter Weather Outlook--With the chill of colder temperatures in the air, we can rest assured that the icy grips of winter are just around the corner. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), a specialized part of the National Weather Service (NWS), has issued its annual winter outlook for the 2000-2001 winter season. The CPC, located in Camp Springs, Maryland, is a government agency that focuses its predictions on Earth's climate. In comparison to the NWS forecasts of short-term weather events, the CPC goes farther into the future (from a week to seasons). The CPC conducts real-time monitoring of Earth's climate and makes predictions of climate variability over land and ocean and in the atmosphere. The CPC also evaluates the sources of major climate anomalies. The operations branch of the CPC prepares long-range forecasts by applying dynamical, empirical, and statistical techniques. The analysis branch performs applied research to identify physical factors responsible for climate fluctuations. The two branches work jointly to test new forecast methods and models, with the goal of improving model output. The CPC also evaluates the outlook for floods, droughts, hurricanes, ozone depletion, and El Nino and La Nina environments. So, what is the CPC outlook for winter 2000-2001? For the most part, winter weather will return to ''normal'' this season, because the El Nino and La Nina anomalies that shaped our past three winters have dissipated. Normal winter weather statistics are based on data for 1961-1990. The strong influence of the sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific Ocean during an El Nino or La Nina episode, which makes it easier for forecasters to predict the trend for weather events, has given way to more neutral conditions. This winter, we should be prepared for swings in temperature and precipitation. The CPC is forecasting a more normal winter in general. Thus, we should expect colder temperatures than during the past three winters, which were greatly influenced and warmed by La Nina conditions.

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Languages : en
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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.

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Pages : 3

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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.

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Languages : en
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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.

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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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Languages : en
Pages : 5

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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.

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Pages : 3

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This newletter begins a discussion on Lightning--Natures's light show. This issue explains what lightning is. Fortunately, lightning strikes on ARM's instruments occurs infrequently. Next month's issue will explain lightning safety and how ARM has dealt with lightning safety.

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Languages : en
Pages : 5

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Winter has set its sights upon us, just in time to make the holidays bright. Remembering the joy winter brought us when we were children might help us cope with the hazards and inconvenience of the season, but we can't avoid the coping. The basic mechanisms that support summer storms also occur in winter storms. These mechanisms include low-pressure centers, warm fronts, and cold fronts. As winter approaches, the northern branch of the jet stream dips to the south, bringing cold polar air into the Midwest and Southern Great Plains states. Counterclockwise rotation around a low-pressure center allows relatively warm, moist air from the south to flow northward on the eastern side of the low. Cold air from the north is drawn southward, behind the low-pressure center. Sufficiently cold air and abundant moisture are two ingredients necessary to fuel a winter storm system. The intensity of a storm depends on the strength and position of the jet stream relative to the low-pressure center, as well as horizontal temperature gradients and upper-air disturbances. The most frequent origin for snowstorms that affect the Southern Great Plains states is the lee of the Rocky Mountains. Low-pressure systems develop in this area and move eastward or northeastward, encountering and picking up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Such storms contribute to average annual snowfall levels over the ARM Program sites ranging from 5-15 inches in Oklahoma to 15-30 inches in Kansas.

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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.