Southern Great Plains

The Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory was the first field measurement site established by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. Established in 1992, the SGP observatory consists of in situ and remote-sensing instrument clusters arrayed across north-central Oklahoma and offers high-quality data and simulations for use by the atmospheric science community. Data are used in a variety of ways from single observation analyses, to multi-observation process studies, to assimilation into earth system models.

Located on 160 acres of cattle pasture and wheat fields, the heart of the SGP observatory is the heavily instrumented Central Facility southeast of Lamont, Oklahoma. Technicians, along with support staff and observers, monitor data from the Central Facility instruments and from smaller, unstaffed facilities throughout the site.

ARM has placed more than 50 instrument platforms or suites at the SGP observatory, including:

• Radiometers
• Radars
• Lidars
• Surface meteorological instrumentation
• Aerosol instrumentation
• Total sky imager
• Ceilometer
• Radiosondes

Researchers supplement the continuous observations with guest instruments during field research campaigns or by requesting increases in the frequency of measurements, such as sonde launches.

ARM transmits all data gathered at the SGP to the ARM Data Center and they are made freely available via Data Discovery.