About

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is a multi-laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientific user facility, and a key contributor to national and international climate research efforts.

Atmospheric Data Collection

ARM data are currently collected from three atmospheric observatories—Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska, and Eastern North Atlantic—that represent the broad range of climate conditions around the world, as well as from the three ARM mobile facilities and ARM aerial facilities. Data from these atmospheric observatories, as well as from past research campaigns and the former Tropical Western Pacific observatory, are available at no charge through the ARM Data Center via Data Discovery.

Mission

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility managed by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, provides the climate research community with strategically located atmospheric observatories to improve the understanding and representation in earth system models of clouds and aerosols and their interactions with the Earth’s surface.

Vision

To provide the research community with the best array of field observations and supporting state-of-the-art data analytics to significantly improve the representation of challenging atmospheric processes in earth system models.

Facility Usage

ARM Journal Publications

1170 Publications

ARM Scientific Users

Fiscal Year 2024

980 Scientific Users

ARM Leadership & Organization

Nine DOE national laboratories share the responsibility of managing and operating ARM. Along with these laboratories, several constituent groups help provide scientific guidance and develop ARM priorities. ARM also collaborates with many national and international partners.

Future Directions

ARM is looking to the future and undergoing a reconfiguration that will enhance the application of ARM data to support process studies and accelerate model development. The combined observational and modeling elements will enable the next generation of scientific inquiry.

Facility Documents

Along with scientific publications, ARM has three main types of operational documents:

Program documents, which include the Facility Management Plan, Decadal Vision planning document, and Decadal Vision progress report.
Science reports, which include science plans, field research campaign final reports, and workshop reports.
Technical reports, which describe how ARM data products are created and ARM scientific instruments are used.

History

ARM has provided the world’s atmospheric scientists with continuous observations of cloud and aerosol properties and their impacts on the Earth’s energy balance for almost 30 years.