Quality Assurance of ARM Program Climate Research Facility Data

Peppler, Randy A.; Kehoe, Kenneth; Sonntag, Karen L.; Bahrmann, C. P.; Richardson, Scott J.; Christensen, S.W.; McCord, R.A.; Doty, David; Wagener, R.; Eagan, Richard C.; Lijegren, J. C.; Orr, Bruce; Sisterson, Douglas L; Halter, Todd D.; Keck, N. N.; Long, CN; Macduff, M. C.; Mather, J. H.; Perez, Robin; Voyles, Jimmy W.; Ivey, Mark D.; Moore, Sean T.; Nitschke, D. L.; Perkins, B. D.; Turner, David D.

doi:10.2172/948030

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…All radiometers are replaced yearly with freshly calibrated units, and domes at the SGP Central Facility are cleaned daily with those at the Extended Facilities serviced biweekly. Instrument performance is monitored on a daily basis to ensure data quality [ Peppler et al , 2008] with maintenance as needed to assure the best possible data continuity. The air temperature and humidity measurements (used in the calculation of clear‐sky downwelling LW) are from the ARM Surface Meteorological Observation Systems, which use a Campbell Scientific Model HMP35C temperature and humidity probe (manufactured by Vaisala) in an aspirated enclosure.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant decadal brightening of downwelling shortwave in the continental United States

Long¹,

Dutton²,

Augustine³

et al. 2009

J. Geophys. Res.

115

122

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[1] We conduct analyses of all-sky and clear-sky surface downwelling shortwave radiation and bulk cloud properties using data from several Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Surface Radiation (SURFRAD) network sites spanning the years 1995 through 2007. Five ARM sites are aggregated to study downwelling shortwave tendencies on global circulation model grid scales, and then six SURFRAD sites plus the central ARM site are aggregated to study the wider scale of the continental United States. We show that widespread brightening has occurred over the continental United States as represented by these measurements over the 12 years of the study, averaging about 8 W m À2 /decade for the all-sky shortwave and 5 W m À2 /decade for the clear-sky shortwave. This all-sky increase is substantially greater than the 2 W m À2 /decade previously reported over much more of the globe as represented by data from the Global Energy Balance Archive spanning 1986-2000 and is more than twice the magnitude of the corresponding 1986-2000 2-3 W m À2 /decade increase in downwelling longwave. Our results show that changes in dry aerosols and/or direct aerosol effects alone cannot explain the observed changes in surface shortwave (SW) radiation, but it is likely that changes in cloudiness play a significant role. These SW increases are accompanied by decreasing tendencies in cloudiness, and an increasing tendency in the clear-sky SW diffuse/direct ratio that is often associated with atmospheric turbidity. However, given the many local influences, evidence presented here suggests that the determination of the causes of decadal changes in the downwelling solar radiation at the surface are better studied locally and regionally, rather than on a global or continental scale.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant decadal brightening of downwelling shortwave in the continental United States

Long¹,

Dutton²,

Augustine³

et al. 2009

J. Geophys. Res.

115

122

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…have shown evidence of "global dimming", which was described as a widespread decrease of downwelling solar radiation from the early 1960s up to the late 1980s. However, starting during the 1990s, this trend reversed with some regions such as Europe and North America now experiencing "brightening" (Wild et al, 2005(Wild et al, , 2009Pinker et al, 2005;Dutton et al, 2006;Long et al, 2009) possibly due to the air pollution controls. In particular, Wild et al (2009) and Long et al (2009) have demonstrated the "brightening" trend with surface radiation measurements (e.g., Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), Surface Radiation Budget Network (SURFRAD) and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)) in Europe and the United States (US).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the effect of air pollution controls on trends in shortwave radiation over the United States from 1995 through 2010 from multiple observation networks

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Long-term data sets of all-sky and clear-sky downwelling shortwave (SW) radiation, cloud cover fraction, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) were analyzed together with surface concentrations from several networks (e.g., Surface Radiation Budget Network (SURFRAD), Clean Air Status and Trend Network (CASTNET), Interagency Monitoring of Protection Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)) in the United States (US). Seven states with varying climatology were selected to better understand the effects of aerosols and clouds on SW radiation. This analysis aims to assess the effects of reductions in anthropogenic aerosol burden resulting from substantial reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) over the past 16 yr across the US, based on trends in SW radiation. The SO2 and NOx emission data show decreasing trends from 1995 to 2010, which indirectly validates the effects of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in the US. Meanwhile, the total column AOD and surface total PM2.5 observations also show decreasing trends in the eastern US but slightly increasing trends in the western US. Moreover, measured surface concentrations of several other pollutants (i.e., SO2, SO4 and NOx) have similar behavior to AOD and total PM2.5. Analysis of the observed data shows strong increasing trends in all-sky downwelling SW radiation with decreasing trends in cloud cover. However, since observations of both all-sky direct and diffuse SW radiation show increasing trends, there may be other factors contributing to the radiation trends in addition to the decreasing trends in overall cloud cover. To investigate the role of direct radiative effects of aerosols, clear-sky downwelling radiation is analyzed so that cloud effects are eliminated. However, similar increasing trends in clear-sky total and diffuse SW radiation are observed. While significantly decreasing trends in AOD and surface PM2.5 concentrations along with increasing SW radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) in the eastern US during 1995–2010 imply the occurrence of direct aerosol mediated "brightening", the increasing trends of both all-sky and clear-sky diffuse SW radiation contradicts this conclusion since diffuse radiation would be expected to decrease as aerosols direct effects decrease and cloud cover decreases. After investigating several confounding factors, the increasing trend in clear-sky diffuse SW may be due to more high-level cirrus from increasing air traffic over the US. The clear-sky radiation observations in the western US also show indications of "brightening" even though the AOD, PM2.5 and surface concentration do not vary drastically. This outcome was not unexpected because the CAA controls were mainly aimed at reducing air pollutant emissions in the eastern US and air pollutant levels in the western US were much lower at the onset. This suggests other factors affect the "brightening" especially in the western US.

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“…These checks enable the Archive to store all files, protect them against corruption, display holdings in logical and useful ways for ordering, and provide all files (and only those files) needed to fulfill a data request. These procedures, comprising a ten-step process, are described in [1].…”

Section: Internal Quality Assurance For File Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent directions in ACRF data quality assurance are outlined near the end of this article. Greater detail and background on some of these processes can be found in [1]. The programmatic and scien-tific objectives of the ARM Program, designed to improve our understanding of the processes that affect atmospheric radiation and the characterization of these processes in climate models, and of the ACRF measurement sites, situated to provide an accurate description of atmospheric radiation and its interaction with clouds and cloud processes, can be found in [2] and also online at http://www.arm.gov/.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of ARM Program Climate Research Facility Data Quality Assurance

Peppler¹,

Long²,

Sisterson³

et al. 2008

TOASCJ

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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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Quality Assurance of ARM Program Climate Research Facility Data

Cited by 13 publications

References 52 publications

Significant decadal brightening of downwelling shortwave in the continental United States

Significant decadal brightening of downwelling shortwave in the continental United States

Assessment of the effect of air pollution controls on trends in shortwave radiation over the United States from 1995 through 2010 from multiple observation networks

An Overview of ARM Program Climate Research Facility Data Quality Assurance

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