Drought-stricken areas of Central America and Mexico were victimized in 1998 by forest and brush fires that burned out of control during much of the first half of the year. Wind currents at various times during the episode helped transport smoke from these fires over the Gulf of Mexico and into portions of the United States. Visibilities were greatly reduced during favorable flow periods from New Mexico to south Florida and northward to Wisconsin as a result of this smoke and haze. In response to the reduced visibilities and increased pollutants, public health advisories and information statements were issued by various agencies in Gulf Coast states and in Oklahoma. This event was also detected by a unique array of instrumentation deployed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program Southern Great Plains Cloud and Radiation Testbed and by sensors of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality/Air Quality Division. Observations from these measurement devices suggest elevated levels of aerosol loading and ozone concentrations during May 1998 when prevailing winds were favorable for the transport of the Central American smoke pall into Oklahoma and Kansas. In particular, aerosol extinction profiles derived from the ARM Raman lidar measurements revealed large variations in the vertical distribution of the smoke.
Abstract:We present an overview of key aspects of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) data quality assurance program. Processes described include instrument deployment and calibration; instrument and facility maintenance; data collection and processing infrastructure; data stream inspection and assessment; problem reporting, review and resolution; data archival, display and distribution; data stream reprocessing; engineering and operations management; and the roles of value-added data processing and targeted field campaigns in specifying data quality and characterizing field measurements. The paper also includes a discussion of recent directions in ACRF data quality assurance. A comprehensive, end-to-end data quality assurance program is essential for producing a high-quality data set from measurements made by automated weather and climate networks. The processes developed during the ARM Program offer a possible framework for use by other instrumentation-and geographically-diverse data collection networks and highlight the myriad aspects that go into producing research-quality data.
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