Science Plan for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM).
Science Plan for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM).

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Published: 2001

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The purpose of this Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Plan is to articulate the scientific issues driving the ARM Program, and to relate them to DOE's programmatic objectives for ARM, based on the experience and scientific progress gained over the past five years. ARM programmatic objectives are to: (1) Relate observed radiative fluxes and radiances in the atmosphere, spectrally resolved and as a function of position and time, to the temperature and composition of the atmosphere, specifically including water vapor and clouds, and to surface properties, and sample sufficient variety of situations so as to span a wide range of climatologically relevant possibilities; (2) develop and test parameterizations that can be used to accurately predict the radiative properties and to model the radiative interactions involving water vapor and clouds within the atmosphere, with the objective of incorporating these parameterizations into general circulation models. The primary observational methods remote sending and other observations at the surface, particularly remote sensing of clouds, water vapor and aerosols.

Contributions of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and the ARM Climate Research Facility to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program
Contributions of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and the ARM Climate Research Facility to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program

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Published: 2008

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The Earth's surface temperature is determined by the balance between incoming solar radiation and thermal (or infrared) radiation emitted by the Earth back to space. Changes in atmospheric composition, including greenhouse gases, clouds, and aerosols can alter this balance and produce significant climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) are the primary tool for quantifying future climate change; however, there remain significant uncertainties in the GCM treatment of clouds, aerosol, and their effects on the Earth's energy balance. The 2007 assessment (AR4) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports a substantial range among GCMs in climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas emissions. The largest contributor to this range lies in how different models handle changes in the way clouds absorb or reflect radiative energy in a changing climate (Solomon et al. 2007). In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science created the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program within the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) to address scientific uncertainties related to global climate change, with a specific focus on the crucial role of clouds and their influence on the transfer of radiation in the atmosphere. To address this problem, BER has adopted a unique two-pronged approach: * The ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF), a scientific user facility for obtaining long-term measurements of radiative fluxes, cloud and aerosol properties, and related atmospheric characteristics in diverse climate regimes. * The ARM Science Program, focused on the analysis of ACRF data to address climate science issues associated with clouds, aerosols, and radiation, and to improve GCMs. This report describes accomplishments of the BER ARM Program toward addressing the primary uncertainties related to climate change prediction as identified by the IPCC.

Environmental Assessment for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program
Environmental Assessment for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program

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Published: 1992

Total Pages: 223

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The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is aimed at supplying improved predictive capability of climate change, particularly the prediction of cloud-climate feedback. The objective will be achieved by measuring the atmospheric radiation and physical and meteorological quantities that control solar radiation in the earth's atmosphere and using this information to test global climate and related models. The proposed action is to construct and operate a Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) research site in the southern Great Plains as part of the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program whose objective is to develop an improved predictive capability of global climate change. The purpose of this CART research site in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma would be to collect meteorological and other scientific information to better characterize the processes controlling radiation transfer on a global scale. Impacts which could result from this facility are described.

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program and Interfaces with External Data Sources
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program and Interfaces with External Data Sources

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Published: 1993

Total Pages: 7

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The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is the Department of Energy's major field project in support of its global change research program. Its objective is to improve the performance of cloud and radiation models and parameterizations in general circulation models (GCMs) used for climate research. The data produced by ARM will be handled and maintained to satisfy the research needs of the program and to be accessible and usable by the general research and academic communities. In addition to data from field instrumentation, ARM Science Team needs include a substantial amount of data from outside the ARM Program (''external data''), which will be acquired and provided routinely through the ARM data system. With respect to data archival and sharing, the ARM Program reflects the objectives delineated by the US Global Change. The purpose of this presentation is to summarize the conceptual designs embodied in the ARM data system and the status of its implementation.

Proceedings of the Sixth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting
Proceedings of the Sixth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

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Published: 2001

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This document contains the summaries of papers presented at the 1996 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team meeting held at San Antonio, Texas. The history and status of the ARM program at the time of the meeting helps to put these papers in context. The basic themes have not changed. First, from its beginning, the Program has attempted to respond to the most critical scientific issues facing the US Global Change Research Program. Second, the Program has been strongly coupled to other agency and international programs. More specifically, the Program reflects an unprecedented collaboration among agencies of the federal research community, among the US Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories, and between DOE's research program and related international programs, such as Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX) and the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program. Next, ARM has always attempted to make the most judicious use of its resources by collaborating and leveraging existing assets and has managed to maintain an aggressive schedule despite budgets that have been much smaller than planned. Finally, the Program has attracted some of the very best scientific talent in the climate research community and has, as a result, been productive scientifically.

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Science Plan Current Status and Future Directions of the ARM Science Program
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Science Plan Current Status and Future Directions of the ARM Science Program

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Published: 2004

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The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program has matured into one of the key programs in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The ARM Program has achieved considerable scientific success in a broad range of activities, including site and instrument development, atmospheric radiative transfer, aerosol science, determination of cloud properties, cloud modeling, and cloud parameterization testing and development. The focus of ARM science has naturally shifted during the last few years to an increasing emphasis on modeling and parameterization studies to take advantage of the long time series of data now available. During the next 5 years, the principal focus of the ARM science program will be to: Maintain the data record at the fixed ARM sites for at least the next five years. Improve significantly our understanding of and ability to parameterize the 3-D cloud-radiation problem at scales from the local atmospheric column to the global climate model (GCM) grid square. Continue developing techniques to retrieve the properties of all clouds, with a special focus on ice clouds and mixed-phase clouds. Develop a focused research effort on the indirect aerosol problem that spans observations, physical models, and climate model parameterizations. Implement and evaluate an operational methodology to calculate broad-band heating rates in the atmospheric columns at the ARM sites. Develop and implement methodologies to use ARM data more effectively to test atmospheric models, both at the cloud-resolving model scale and the GCM scale. Use these methodologies to diagnose cloud parameterization performance and then refine these parameterizations to improve the accuracy of climate model simulations. In addition, the ARM Program is actively developing a new ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) that will be available for short deployments (several months to a year or more) in climatically important regions. The AMF will have much of the same instrumentation as the remote facilities at ARM's Tropical Western Pacific and the North Slope of Alaska sites. Over time, this new facility will extend ARM science to a much broader range of conditions for model testing.