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

Tailoring a convection-cloud chamber for optimizing droplet collisions

12 March 2024

Wang, Aaron; Ovchinnikov, Mikhail

Supported by: ASR

Research area: Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions

Droplet collision-coalescence plays an important role in the initial formation of drizzle-sized droplets, yet quantitative understanding of this process in turbulent clouds is lacking. A convection-cloud chamber that produces a turbulent cloud between a warm moist bottom and a cold moist top can provide a controlled environment for laboratory studies [...]

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Biomass burning gases react within clouds, forming secondary organic aerosols

11 March 2024

Ovchinnikov, Mikhail; Shrivastava, Manishkumar

Supported by: ARM ASR

Research area: Aerosol Processes

Thousands of tiny particles in the atmosphere unseen by the naked eye scatter and absorb solar radiation and seed clouds. A lot of these particles are not directly emitted but are formed by reactions of gases with atmospheric oxidants in multiple phases, including gas-phase and liquid water contained in clouds [...]

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Decoding the dialogue between clouds and land through boundary-layer processes

8 March 2024

SU, Tianning; Li, Zhanqing

Supported by: ARM ASR

Research area: Cloud Processes

Based on a series of previous research, this article revisits and challenges the conventional understanding of how clouds form and engage with the Earth's surface. This exploration discusses the process-level mechanism of the complex interactions within the atmospheric boundary layer.

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