Four months of continuous large-scale forcing data are now available for the ARM Mobile Facility deployment at McMurdo Station during the ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE).
Scientists can use this value-added product (VAP), known as VARANAL, to drive single-column models, cloud-resolving models, and large-eddy simulation models for different cloud and convective systems. To help validate model simulations, the VAP includes diagnostic fields such as diabatic heating profiles, cloud fields, surface measurements, and large-scale conditions.
The AWARE large-scale forcing data are available for January, March, April, and May 2016. These data are derived from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data using a constrained variational analysis approach (Zhang and Lin 1997; Zhang et al. 2001).
The forcing data represent an average over the analysis domain, centered at 77oS, 168.25oE—near McMurdo Station on Ross Island—with a diameter of 200 kilometers. The analysis domain represents ocean only, excluding grid points over land.
This evaluation data set is in netCDF format, with a time resolution of 3 hours and a vertical resolution of 25 hPa.
Scientists can begin using the AWARE large-scale variational analysis forcing data for model simulation and evaluation.
More information about VARANAL can be found on the VAP web page.
To ask questions, report data problems, or provide feedback on this evaluation product, please contact Cheng Tao or Shaocheng Xie. More details about the ARM continuous forcing data set are in Xie et al. (2004).
Data can be referenced as doi:10.5439/1602289. To access the data set, please browse the ARM Data Center. (Go here to create an account to download the data.)
References: Zhang M and J Lin. 1997. “Constrained Variational Analysis of Sounding Data Based on Column-Integrated Budgets of Mass, Heat, Moisture, and Momentum: Approach and Application to ARM Measurements.” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 54(11), 1503-1524, doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1997)054<1503:CVAOSD>2.0.CO;2.
Zhang M, J Lin, RT Cederwall, JJ Yio, and SC Xie. 2001. “Objective Analysis of ARM IOP Data: Method and Sensitivity.” Monthly Weather Review, 129(2), 295-311, doi:10.1175/1520-0493(2001)129<0295:OAOAID>2.0.CO;2.
Xie S, RT Cederwall, and MH Zhang. 2004. “Developing long-term single-column model/cloud system–resolving model forcing data using numerical weather prediction products constrained by surface and top of the atmosphere observations.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 109(D1), D01104, doi:10.1029/2003JD004045.
# # #ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories.