Research Highlights

 

Members of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s science team are major contributors to radiation and cloud research. Scientists and investigators using ARM publish about 150 peer-reviewed journal articles per year, and ARM data are used in many studies published by other scientific organizations. These documented research efforts represent tangible evidence of ARM’s contribution to advances in almost all areas of atmospheric radiation and cloud research.

Recent Highlights

Particles in motion: tracking aerosols with precision and a touch of randomness

4 December 2024

Riemer, Nicole; West, Matthew

Supported by: ASR

Research area: Aerosol Processes

Particle-resolved aerosol modeling is a powerful tool in aerosol research because it captures critical processes and properties that bulk or simplified models often miss. Our work introduces a new method for simulating aerosol transport processes for particle-resolved models, thereby enabling the use of these models on the regional scale.

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Simulations reveal details of mixing of a cloud with dry air

2 December 2024

Ovchinnikov, Mikhail

Supported by: ASR

Research area: Cloud Processes

When environmental air becomes trapped in a cloud, a process known as entrainment can affect cloud radiative properties, precipitation formation, and ultimately the entire climate system. However, understanding how clouds mix with surrounding air at small scales remains a large challenge. If droplets evaporate quickly at the cloud edges before [...]

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Improving low-cloud fraction prediction through machine learning

25 November 2024

Li, Zhanqing; Zhang, Haipeng

Supported by: ASR

Research area: Cloud Processes

Low clouds impose a strong radiative cooling effect on Earth’s climate. Predicting low-cloud fraction (LCF) is, however, challenging in global climate models (GCMs), partly due to deficiencies in cloud parameterization schemes. There are two longstanding issues in GCMs: (a) predicting too few low clouds and (b) simulating a too rapid [...]

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