ARM Best Estimate Data Released for SAIL Campaign

 
Published: 10 November 2023
The top figure shows relative humidity scaled, by total column amount from MWR, from sounding in height coordinate (%), from SAIL, for the first 120 days of 2022. The y-axis represents height from 0 to 15 kilometers. The bottom figure shows surface precipitation from SAIL in the first 120 days of 2022. The precipitation rate is from 0 to 7 mm/hour.
ARMBEATM relative humidity (top) and surface precipitation (bottom) are shown for the first 120 days of 2022 during the SAIL campaign.

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 climate models.

Two ARMBE data sets are now available from the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign, which ran from September 1, 2021, to June 15, 2023, near Crested Butte, Colorado.

The ARM Best Estimate Atmospheric Measurements (ARMBEATM) data set contains basic atmospheric quantities, and ARM Best Estimate Cloud Radiation (ARMBECLDRAD) provides cloud and radiation quantities.

The top plot is labeled "CloudFraction (%) ARMBE," and the bottom plot is labeled "Cloud detection (color) and cloud base (white)" with the datastream name gucarsclkazr1kolliasM1.c0.
ARMBECLDRAD cloud fraction (top) on August 1, 2022, at the SAIL ARM Mobile Facility site is derived from the Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (KAZRARSCL) data product (bottom).

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

Find more information about ARMBE data products on the ARMBE web page.

Scientists can use the ARMBEATM and ARMBECLDRAD data from SAIL now. Access the data in the ARM Data Center. (To download the data, create an account.)

Feedback on the data is always welcome. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Yuying Zhang or Shaocheng Xie.

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

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