30 Years of ARM Data

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility marks 30 years of atmospheric data collection in May 2022. ARM collected its first data on May 16, 1992, in a farm field in Oklahoma. Since that date, ARM has pulled in more than 3 petabytes of data from all seven continents and all five oceans.

From May 2022 to May 2023, ARM will publish an “ARM30” series of articles, which will reflect on the science impacts of ARM data over the past 30 years while looking ahead to the facility’s future. This page includes features from the ARM30 series, plus images, videos, and other articles that provide a view of ARM’s past, present, and future. Please check back often for updates.

• May 2022: “ARM Marks 30 Years of Collecting Atmospheric Data”
• June 2022: “Southern Great Plains Observatory Remains a Research ‘Field of Dreams'”
• July 2022: “Tropical Western Pacific’s Rich Legacy of Data Lives On”
• August 2022: “Explore ARM’s Quarter-Century of Arctic Data”
• September 2022: “From Pole to Pole: ARM’s Research Reach in the High Latitudes”
• January 2023: “ARM Out on the Open Ocean”
• February 2023: “Going Coastal: Studying Marine Processes From Land”
• March 2023: “Mountains and Trees: ARM Tangles With Complex Terrain”
• April 2023: “ARM in the Air”
• May 2023: “ARM30 and Beyond: The Evolution of ARM Data”
• May 2023: “A Look Back: Infrastructure Review Committee Helps Adjust Course of ARM”

View more videos on ARM’s YouTube channel.

Click on the + next to the topic to view related articles below; click on the – to collapse the list.

Please note: ARM’s news center goes back to 2004.

• Stories about and from the monograph, an online document by ARM veterans that chronicles ARM’s first 20 years
  • “25 Years of ARM Shows Benefits of Having Heads in the Clouds” (published in May 2016)
  • “ARM Instruments Reel In Decades of Data” (published in July 2016)
  • “ARM Data Flow: A Look Back” (published in September 2016)
  • “20 Years of ARM History Chronicled in Monograph” (published in December 2016)
• Read the ARM monograph
  • All 30 chapters published by the American Meteorological Society, plus the introduction and appendices

• December 2016: ARM completes its first petabyte of data
  • “ARM Data Center Reaches One Petabyte” (published in February 2017)
• March 2020: ARM hits 2 petabytes of data
  • “ARM Data Center Receives International Certification” (published in June 2020)
• April 2021: ARM reaches 3 petabytes of data
  • “ARM Data Center Improves User Experience and Passes Another Milestone” (published in August 2021)

Note: The openings of the Southern Great Plains and North Slope of Alaska atmospheric observatories predate ARM’s news center. The third ARM Mobile Facility and Eastern North Atlantic atmospheric observatory will have their 10-year anniversaries in 2023.

• 2011: After 12 years, ARM ends operations at Atqasuk, Alaska
  • “ARM Scales Back in Atqasuk, Alaska” (published in January 2011)
• 2013–2014: Tropical Western Pacific sites end operations
  • “Small Footprint, Big Shoes: Stepping Out at Nauru” (published in September 2013)
  • “Heartfelt Goodbye to Manus Island” (published in August 2014)
  • “Darwin Site Operations Come to an End” (published in February 2015)
• 2013: Third ARM Mobile Facility starts operations in Alaska
  • “Climate Data Now Flowing From Oliktok, Alaska” (published in September 2013)
• 2013: Eastern North Atlantic atmospheric observatory starts operations
  • “New Climate Research Site in the Azores Fills Critical Data Gap” (published in October 2013)
• 2016: 10 years of the ARM Aerial Facility
  • “Celebrating Climate Data’s Wild Blue Yonder” (published in October 2016)
• 2017: 25 years of Southern Great Plains data
  • “Standard-Setting ARM Data Started in a Pasture 25 Years Ago” (published in April 2017)
  • “At Age 25, Southern Great Plains Has Gathered Critical Data” (published in June 2017)
• 2017: 20 years of North Slope of Alaska data
  • “Discover 20 Years of ARM Arctic Data” (published in July 2017)
• 2020: 15 years of the first ARM Mobile Facility
  • “Hopping Continents in the Name of Atmospheric Science” (published in May 2020)
• 2020: 10 years of the second ARM Mobile Facility
  • “Second ARM Mobile Facility Enters Second Decade of Deployments” (published in August 2021)
• 2021: Third ARM Mobile Facility ends operations in Alaska
  • “ARM Mobile Facility Nears End of Deployment at Oliktok Point, Alaska” (published in August 2021)
• Coming soon: Third ARM Mobile Facility to start operations in the Southeastern United States
  • “AGU 2021 Scoop: ARM Eyes Northern Alabama for New Deployment” (published in January 2022)

Note: The list below includes items in ARM’s news center, which covers 2004 to present.

• 2004–2008: ARM adds to its suite of instruments
  • “New Narrow Field of View Radiometer Widens Range of Radiance Data” (published in August 2004)
  • “New Shortwave Spectrometer Performs Well in Field Evaluation” (published in January 2005)
  • “New Shortwave Spectrometer Deployed at SGP” (published in May 2006)
  • “New Instrument ‘Counts’ Cloud Particles” (published in September 2006)
• 2005: New Cessna Turbo 206 aircraft replaces Cessna 172XP
  • “Bigger, Better Cessna Ready to Record Aerosol and Carbon Cycle Data” (published in September 2005)
• 2009–2011: Influx of funding leads to new instruments and system upgrades
  • “Scanning Capability Added to Cloud Radar” (published in September 2009)
  • “Happy New (fiscal) Year! Cloud Droplet Probe Arrives in Time for SPARTICUS” (published in November 2009)
  • “Ceilometer Represents First Deployment of New Ground-based Instruments from Recovery Act” (published in May 2010)
  • “Up, Up, and Away–Automated Balloon Launcher Headed to North Slope” (published in June 2010)
  • “ARM Data Management Facility Completes Upgrades from Recovery Act Funding” (published in July 2010)
  • “Micropulse Lidars Get Boost from Recovery Act” (published in August 2010)
  • “Measurements of Total Surface Energy Now Available from Australia” (published in September 2010)
  • “Enhanced Data Systems Ready at Tropical Western Pacific Sites” (published in September 2010)
  • “New Raman Lidar En Route to Australia” (published in October 2010)
  • “Cloud Radar Overhauled and Renamed” (published in January 2011)
  • “Final Recovery Act Milestone Complete!” (published in October 2011)
• 2015: Development begins for Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) ARM Symbiotic Simulation and Observation (LASSO) workflow
  • “Pilot Phase Begins for Routine Large-Eddy Simulations” (published in May 2015)
• 2015–2016: ARM begins routine collection of spatial information using uncrewed aerial systems and tethered balloon systems
  • “Reconfiguring ARM: Arctic Eyes in the Sky” (published in July 2016)
• 2017: ARM uncrewed aerial system takes to the sky
  • “ArcticShark Flies Its First Instruments” (published in November 2017)
• 2019: ARM replaces its Gulfstream-159 (G-1) research aircraft
  • “ARM’s New Laboratory in the Sky” (published in June 2019)
  • “ARM’s G-1 Research Aircraft Completes Final Science Mission” (published in February 2019)
• 2022: New ARM computing resource goes online
  • “New ARM High-Performance Computing Cluster Ready for Use” (published in April 2022)