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ARM Best Estimate Data Available for African, Antarctic Campaigns

 
Published: 12 November 2020

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility provides tailored datastreams known as ARM Best Estimate (ARMBE) data products for use in the evaluation of global earth system models. ARMBE data sets are now available for the Radiative Divergence Using AMF, GERB, and AMMA Stations (RADAGAST) field campaign in Niamey, Niger, and the ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE).

The data sets available for both campaigns are ARM Best Estimate Atmospheric Measurements (ARMBEATM) and ARM Best Estimate Cloud Radiation (ARMBECLDRAD). ARMBEATM contains basic atmospheric quantities, and ARMBECLDRAD provides cloud and radiation quantities.

ARM Mobile Facilities in Niger and Antarctica
ARM Mobile Facilities came to Niger, left, for the Radiative Divergence Using AMF, GERB, and AMMA Stations (RADAGAST) field campaign and to Antarctica, right, a decade later for the ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE).

An ARMBE product assembles quantities that are both well observed by ARM over many years and are often used in model evaluation into one data set. These products consist of hourly averages and thus have temporal resolution comparable to a typical resolution used in earth system model output.

Scientists can use the RADAGAST and AWARE ARMBE data sets now. Data for RADAGAST are available from January 1 to December 30, 2006. The AWARE data are from January 1 to December 31, 2016, at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Find more information about ARMBE data products on the ARMBE web page and Xie et al. (2010).

ARMBEATM plots for RADAGAST and AWARE campaigns
Left: ARMBEATM relative humidity, top, and surface precipitation, bottom, are shown for the RADAGAST campaign during 2006.
Right: ARMBEATM temperature, top, and surface downwelling shortwave radiation, bottom, are shown for the AWARE McMurdo Station deployment during 2016.
Cloud fraction from RADAGAST and AWARE field campaigns
Plots show ARMBECLDRAD cloud fraction, top, derived from Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) products, on the bottom. The left plots are from August 23, 2006, during the RADAGAST campaign, and the right plots are from April 1, 2016, during AWARE.

Feedback and use of the ARMBE data are always welcomed. If you have questions or suggestions about the RADAGAST/AWARE data, please contact Yuying Zhang or Shaocheng Xie.

Users can access the ARMBEATM and ARMBECLDRAD data sets from the ARM Data Center. (Go here to create an account to download the data.)

To cite the data, please use doi:10.5439/1333748 for ARMBEATM and doi:10.5439/1333228 for ARMBECLDRAD.

Reference: Xie S, RB McCoy, SA Klein, RT Cederwall, WJ Wiscombe, EE Clothiaux, KL Gaustad, J Golaz, S Hall, MP Jensen, KL Johnson, Y Lin, CN Long, JH Mather, RA McCord, SA McFarlane, G Palanisamy, Y Shi, and DD Turner. 2010. “ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data – A new data product for climate studies.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91(1), 10.1175/2009bams2891.1.

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ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories.