an overview of accomplishments at the arm climate research facility southern great ... ·...

A U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago-Argonne, LLC

An Overview of Accomplishments at the ARM ClimateResearch Facility Southern Great Plains During 2006

Brad W. Orr1 Dan J. Rusk2 Douglas L. Sisterson11Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL

2ACRF/SGP, Cherokee Nation Distributors, Stilwell, OK

INSTRUMENT SYSTEMS

Shipping and Receiving

The new S&R building was fullyoutfitted and operational this year.Nearly 1500 shipments passedthrough the SGP last year.

FIELD CAMPAIGNS

COMPUTER OPERATIONSResponsible for management and maintenance of nearly all dataand instrument computers as well as personal computers at theACRF sites (AMF, NSA, SGP and TWP).

Cyber Security - Following guidance from the National labs asignificant effort was spent on cyber security last year which willcontinue into the coming year.

CorePC development - An ARM centric distribution of MicrosoftWindows XP to standardize ARM instrument computers.

•Instrument UpgradesThe 915 MHz Profilers at the CFand IF3 received digital receiverupgrades.

Replacement of the T/RH probeson the SMOS began late 2006.

A new corner reflector wasinstalled for WACR calibrationsunder guidance from ProSensing.

DATA AND VISITORS•Data Availability - Averaged over 96% during 2006.

•Site visitors - The SGP had over 350 visits by scientistsand guests at the Central Facility.

AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank the entire SGP staff for another year of excellence andfor their continued support of all aspects of operations. We continue to receivecompliments from guest scientists and visitors on the accommodating andprofessional attitude of the staff. This research was supported by the Office ofBiological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy aspart of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program

New InstrumentsA Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) counter was addedto the AOS which will complement current capabilities andprovide automated CCN counting.

The SGP supported a significant number of field campaignsover the last year which represents a significant effort beyondnormal operations. A summary is below.

AIRS Validation V-Barry LeshtHydro-Kansas-Vijay GuptaAURA/TES Validation-Frank SchmidlinRS92-NASA/ATM Radiosonde Temperature Inter-comparison-Barry LeshtSAMNET Validation-John DeVoreCO2Flux-Ameriflux Intercomparison-Marc FischerPrecision Gas Sampling (PGS) Validation (‘05/’06)-MarcFischerCombined Wind Profiler Polarimetric Radar study ofPrecipitation Microphysics-Phil ChilsonDisdrometer and Polarimetric Radar Measurements ofPrecipitation Microphysics-Guifu ZhangMagnetic Field Observations-Peter Chi3rd Diffuse Irradiance Study-Joseph MichalskyAerosol CCN Study-Patrick ChuangAura Satellite Validation-Frank MurcrayMWR Inter-comparison-Maria CadedduEvaluation of EZLidar Performance-Iwona StachlewskaRadon Measurements of Atmospheric Mixing (RAMIX)-MarcFischerRS92 Radiosonde RH Sensor Contamination Evaluation-Barry Lesht

Electronics Repair Lab(ERL)The ERL had over 40 work orderswith an estimated savings of$17,000. Nearly 150 sensorswere calibrated including theLicors, the RSS and SWS.

Radiometer CalibrationFacility (RCF)Over 500 sensors were calibratedlast year in the RCF includingradiometers, T/H probes and raingauges. Work continued on adynamic rain gauge calibrator forARM.

Instrument TestingAcceptance testing of the new MPLs for all the ACRF sites.

Evaluation of a new 90/150 GHz radiometer to bedeployed at the NSA.

Left: The 90/150 GHz radiometer set up for evaluation. Right: TheSWS and newly relocated CSPHOT on the top of the Optical Trailer.

CSPHOTSWS

90/150 GHz Radiometer

Aura/TESValidation

Diffuse Irradiance IOP

RAMIX Hydro-Kansas rain gauge

EZLidar Evaluation

FACILITIES

RedHat Enterprise upgrades forLinux machines

NFS hardware upgrades.

PRISM software implementation forautomated software deployment,patching and security updates.

Password control was implementedfor the R1 computers.

George Sawyer-S&R

Mark Klassen-ERL

Craig Webb-RCF

Computer Operations Staff:Trent Doyle (left), Tim Groveand Ron Reed.

Dynamic rain gauge calibrator developedthrough a collaborative effort between theUniversity of Iowa and ARM.

New tower mountedWACR corner reflector.

The Short Wave Spectrometer(SWS) was installed in theOptical Trailer. The SGP staffalso built a darkroom forcalibration of the SWS.

A new Disdrometer and raingauge were installed this year.

The SWS mounted on theOptical Trailer. Calibrationsphere shown in upper left.