INVOLVEMENT OF NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER

in

ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION

MEASUREMENT (ARM) PROGRAM

of

U.S. Department of Energy

1991-2010

Kimpel Retirement Symposium

June 18, 2010

HISTORICAL MILESTONES

ARM genesis in late 1980s NAS/NRC Report

Site Scientist was late inclusion in ARM planning

Early 1991 -- unsuccessful U.S. ARM “Site” RFP

Mid 1991 -- ARM discussions with Universities (including a visit to J. Kimpel) August 1991 -- (1) ARM selects SGP as U.S. site; (2) revised Site Scientist RFP; (3) ARM leaders hold information meeting near OKC Airport

October 1991 -- (1) NWC Proposal submitted; (2) Interview by ARM leaders in Washington DC (including J. Kimpel); (3) NWC Proposal chosen

1992 -- SGP Site Scientist Program initiated (February) and SGP Site inaugurated (October, including R. Van Horn, OU President)

1992-2000 -- involved in many Campaigns (SCM, VORTEX, GCIP, UAV, ARESE, Water Vapor, Aerosol, Cloud)

Mid 2000 -- ARM Data Quality Office (DQO) established “out of” Site Scientist Program (R. Peppler)

2000-2006 -- continued involvement in Campaigns (ARESE II, Water Vapor, RS-90, IHOP, Aerosol)

HISTORICAL MILESTONES (cont)2006 -- unofficial Site Scientist for ARM Mobile Facility deployment in Niger

2006-2010 -- continued involvement in Campaigns (e.g., CLASIC, RACORO, VORTEX 2)

By 2010 -- around $21M invested in SGP observational platforms and infrastructure

2010-2011 -- additional $12M (ARRA) being invested in SGP observational platforms (especially RADARS!)

2010 -- (1) Proposal submitted for “Sahel Cloud and Aerosol Interaction Campaign” inNiger (involving Z. Segele, D. Turner); (2) possibility of permanent Climate Observatory in Niger (B. Moore)

ARM SGP = WORLD’S LEADING CLIMATE OBSERVATORY

and part of

OKLAHOMA = WORLD’S LEADING ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATORY

SGP ARM CLIMATE RESEARCH FACILITY

PROGRAM STRUCTURE, PERSONNEL, AND FUNDINGSGP SITE SCIENTIST TEAM = $ 8,732,000a. Scientific Support for Site Operations J. Schneider, M. Splitt, R. Peppler, C. Bahrmann, D. Bond, J. Harris, D. Hartsockb. Research Using Site Data Y. Kogan, Z. Kogan, D. Stensrud, P. Lamb, Q. Liu (Ph.D.), Q. Xu, C-R. Chen (Ph.D.), C. Duchon, E. Kassianov, S. Richardson, M. Ovtchinnikov (Ph.D.), R. Peppler, M. Khairoutchinov, J. Schneider, D. Mechem, L. Leslie, Z. Segele, D. Portis, E. White (Ph.D. in progress), D. Hartsockc. Educational OutreachK. Crawford, R. McPherson, A. Melvin, M. Shafer

DATA QUALITY OFFICE = $5,404,000R. Peppler, K. Sonntag, A. Dean, K. Kehoe, J. Monroe, A. Theisen

INSTRUMENT MENTORSHIPS = $355,000S. Richardson, J. Schneider, J. Harris, D. Hartsock

WEST AFRICA = $123,000I. Lele, Z. Segele, P. Lamb, H. Hamidou

TOTAL PERSONNEL = 35+ TOTAL FUNDING = $14,614,000

Citations to date = 74 (ISI)

for: D. STENSRUD

BACKGROUNDINFORMATIONFOR ARM

RAINFALL CONTROL ON SGP SURFACE ALBEDO

from: C. DUCHON

DAILY ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE BUDGETMAY-JUNE 2006 (Very Dry) versus 2007 (Very Wet)

Strong contrast between dry 2006/wet 2007 for numbers of days in least/most wet P categoriesGeneral consistency between dry 2006 and wet 2007 for same daily P category

E considerably higher in wet 2007 for daily P < 8 mm and /P higher in wet 2007 for daily P < 4 mm /P tends to decrease with increasing daily P except for 2 < P < 4mm

HA (not HD) is convergent contributor to MFD for daily P < 4 mm and (wet 2007) 4 < P < 8 mm (CLASIC!)dPW depletion is important moisture source in dry 2006 for daily 2 < P < 4

HD is dominant convergent contributor to MFD for daily P > 8mm

Increasingdaily P

Increasingdaily P

(mm d-1 except for

PE /P)

IF/A generally substantially greater in wet 2007 for daily P < 8 mm

PE

PE

Example of a simulation of stratocumulus in a synoptic system over the SGP on 8 April 2006. The goal is to verify LES model and obtain

datasets for parameterization and retrieval development

from: Y. KOGAN

TESTING OF LES MODEL VERSUS SGP OBSERVATIONS

Fig. 1. Probability distributions of correlations between observed (CMBE) and simulated precipitable water vapor for 8 WRF microphysics simulations with (colors) and without (black) data assimilation for May 27-31, 2001, warm-season heavy precipitation event over the ACRF SGP. Correlations were computed for the inner nested domain within 27 x 27 km (solid lines) and 105 x 105 km (dashed lines) boxes surrounding the SGP CF. CNTRL denotes no data assimilation, OBNUD is for rawinsonde observation nudging, SFDDA indicates surface analysis nudging, and 3DVAR and 4DVAR are for three-dimensional and four-dimensional variational data assimilation, respectively. Because the simulated PWV values for the Lin et al. microphysics scheme are indistinguishable for the CNTRL and SFDDA experiments, the CNTRL curve does not appear in the upper left panel.

from: Z. SEGELE

TESTING OF WRF MODEL VERSUS SGP OBSERVATIONS

PARAMETERColumnWater Vapor

Microphysics Schemes(panels)

VARYING

and

Data AssimilationSchemes(lines)

ARM DATA QUALITY OFFICECreated in July 2000 after the ARM Infrastructure Review of 1999 to bring

consistency to data quality treatment across all ARM Climate Research Facilities

Develops tools and procedures to perform data quality inspection and assessment of 5000 measurements from 350 data streams, processing 500 MB

of data each hour and creates 3000 plots per day

Uses automated flagging and data plotting to facilitate the inspection of data and identification of sensor problems

Summarizes results in weekly assessment reports sent to key ARM personnel and initiates problem reports to document, track and resolve detected problems

Part of the ARM Climate Research Facility Infrastructure; works daily with Site Operators, Instrument Mentors, Site Scientists, and Data System Developers – 3.75 FTE plus 4 undergraduate data analysts and 1 undergraduate programmer

R. A. Peppler and 25 co-authors, 2008: An overview of ARM Program Climate Research Facility data quality assurance. The Open Atmospheric Science Journal, 2, 192-216. http://www.bentham.org/open/toascj/openaccess2.htm

from: R. PEPPLER

Simplified MMCR daily metric to alert DQ Simplified MMCR daily metric to alert DQ Office and Instrument Mentor of Office and Instrument Mentor of

potential problemspotential problems

Fluctuating metric triggers

alert

Millimeter Cloud Radar (MMCR) efforts

from: R. PEPPLER

ARM MOBILE FACILITYNIAMEY AIRPORTbefore 2006 rainy season

ARM MOBILE FACILITYNIAMEY AIRPORTafter 2006 rainy season

SAHELIANS STUDYING SAHELIAN CLOUDS IN NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER

Dr. ZewduSegele(Ethiopia)

Hama Hamidou(Niger)

Fig. 2. Characteristics of June-September (JJAS) 2006 rainy season over Niamey. (a) Season-Average W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) reflectivity (dBZ) for all storms (top) and for organized storms that lasted more than 3 hrs (bottom). (b) Season-average cirrus cloud reflectivity (dBZ, top) and average Total Liquid Water (cm, bottom) for days covered with same cirrus clouds (green) and days without any cirrus (red). (c) Composites reflectivity (dBZ) for light (top row) and heavy (bottom row) rainfall rates and their corresponding Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) concentration (number per cubic centimeter, third row) for days with light (red) and heavy (green) rain rates. For (a), (c), the 0 hour coincides with storm center. For (b), the time axis extends over 24 hrs from 0000-2400 UTC of cirrus/no-cirrus day.

from: Z. SEGELE

NIAMEY RAINY SEASONCLOUD AND AEROSOLCHARACTERISTICSFOR 2006

FUTURE IS ROOTED IN PAST

FUTURESGP -- Imminent SGP enhancement optimal cloud definition

valuable resource for severe weather research via ARM-NSSL partnership … including involvement of Dave Turner

West Africa -- Sahel Cloud and Aerosol Interaction Campaign for 15-24 months ?? permanent Climate Observing Facility in Niger ??

PASTMid 1991 -- ARM discussions with Universities (including a visit to

J. Kimpel) October 1991 -- Interview by ARM leaders in Washington DC

(including J. Kimpel)

FUTURE IS ROOTED IN PAST

“… which will be part of our honoring of Jeff Kimpel’s three decades of leadership and very much more… all of us will be honoring Jeff for years to come by our science; our teaching and learning, and our service… Jeff’s lifetime of leadership and accomplishment will be everlasting”. Berrien