Guidance / Submitting Proposals: Guideline Overview / Guidelines : Annual Facility Call

Private: Instruments and VAPs : Annual Facility Call

The U.S. Department of Energy is now accepting preliminary proposals from scientists to deploy an Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) for field campaigns to support the Biological and Environmental Research program’s interests in the science of urban regions and their interactions with the climate system.

Preproposals are due December 19, 2022. An AMF will tentatively be available for deployments starting September 1, 2024.

Core AMF instrumentation available for this solicitation

Additional information about the instrumentation can be found on ARM’s Instruments page.

AMF supplemental instrumentation available with additional justification

Proposals may also request the following AMF supplemental instrumentation. Provide clear scientific justification for each as a stand-alone or grouped addition to the campaign for consideration.

Potential instruments available for ancillary sites

Proposals may request deployment of the following instrumentation at 1–3 ancillary sites. Proposals should provide clear scientific justification for the requested instrumentation at each site and the number of ancillary sites requested. As ARM may not be able to support all ancillary site requests, a prioritization of sites/instrumentation should be provided.

Aerosol Properties

CPC: Condensation Particle Counter
MFRSR: Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer
POPS: Printed Optical Particle Spectrometer

Boundary-Layer Structure

Surface State and Energy Balance

AMF Value-Added Products (VAPs)

The current translator core VAP list as associated with baseline AMF deployments is provided below.

VAPs are designated as c-level products. For most VAPs, the final data level is c1. In some cases, an intermediate c0-level product is created en route to creating a c1-level product. In a few cases, a c2-level product is created when an additional level of processing is required (e.g., when the processing of a long time series feeds back to corrections to individual days). The table below indicates the expected time required to process the c1-level data. Information about c0- or c2-level data is provided where applicable.

VAP	Description	Derived Quantities	Expected Timetable
ACSMCDCE	ACSM corrected for non-unity particle collection	Organic, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride mass concentration.	Runs in near-real time. Typically available within 1 week of data collection.
AERINF	Noise-filtered AERI measurements	Noise-filtered longwave radiance.	Data processed in 10-day chunks one week after input data are available. For AMF, produced on request (campaign end).
AOD-MFRSR [1]	Aerosol Optical Depth	Aerosol optical depth derived from MFRSR measurements.	Southern Great Plains (SGP) data are processed yearly. AMF data are available on request, typically 1-2 years after campaign end.
AOP	Aerosol Optical Properties	Aerosol optical properties, scattering, backscattered radiation.	Runs in near-real time. Typically available within 1 week of data collection.
ARMBE	ARM Best Estimate (formerly Climate Modeling Best Estimate)	Assembles a best estimate of cloud, radiation, atmospheric, and surface properties.	Within one month after required input VAPs are available. For ARM fixed sites, the products will be updated yearly.
ARSCL (Ka-Band, KAZR, KAZRARSCL)	Active Remote Sensing of CLouds	Cloud boundaries, layers, fraction, and best estimates of radar quantities.	Within 1 month of data collection for non-calibrated ‘.c0’ products; ‘.c1’ calibrated products typically within 6 months of campaign end.
CMAC	Corrected Moments in Antenna Coordinates	Corrected gate moments. CF-Radial format.	Within two months of b-level radar data being produced. Certain components may not be run until in situ data are processed (i.e., rainfall rates in new climates).
CCNSMPSKAPPA	Kappa parameter based on CCN and SMPS measurements	Kappa, a representation of aerosol hygroscopicity.	Within 1-2 months of campaign end. Fixed-site data runs in near-real time and is available within 1 week of data collection.
DLPROF	Doppler Lidar Profiles	Profiles of horizontal winds and vertical velocity statistics.	Within 1 week of data collection. Typically initiated a few months from AMF start.
INTERPSONDE	Interpolated radiosonde data sets	Continuous (fixed temporal, height grid) radiosonde data.	Within 1 month of data collection.
LDQUANTS (and/or VDISQUANTS)	Disdrometer rainfall quantities and radar parameter estimates	Dual-polarization radar estimates (Z, ZDR), drop size distribution parameters (shape, slope).	Within 1 month of data collection.
MICROBASEKAPLUS	Baseline cloud microphysical property retrievals	Vertical profiles of cloud liquid water content, cloud ice water content, liquid cloud particle effective radius, and ice cloud particle effective radius.	Within 1-2 months of campaign end, or earlier contingent on MWRRET and ARSCL availability.
MPLCMASK	Micropulse lidar cloud mask and corrected backscatter and depolarization ratios	Vertical cloud layers detected by lidar backscatter profiles.	Runs in near-real time. Typically available within 1 week of data collection.
MWRRET	Precipitable water vapor and cloud liquid water path retrievals from the MWR	Precipitable water vapor, cloud liquid water path.	Within 1 week of data collection for calibrated ‘.c1’ products. Final ‘.c2’ product produced a year at a time within 12 months of campaign end.
PBLHT	Planetary boundary-layer (PBL) height estimates (radiosonde)	Multiple PBL height estimates from multiple radiosonde methods.	Runs in near-real time. Typically available within 1 week of data collection.
QCECOR	Quality-Controlled Eddy Correlation Flux Measurement	Improved surface turbulence fluxes from ECOR measurements, sensible and latent heat flux.	Within 1 month after a field campaign ends. For the ARM fixed sites, the product will be updated yearly.
QCRAD/RADFLUX	Quality-Controlled ARM Radiation Data	Direct and diffuse shortwave, upwelling shortwave, downwelling and upwelling longwave irradiances, downwelling shortwave.	QCRAD ‘.c1’ calibrated data produced within a week of data collection. RADFLUX ‘.c1’ calibrated data produced within a week of QCRAD availability. Final ‘.c2’ products produced a year at a time within 3 to 12 months of the year completing.
SACRGRID (PPI scans and RHI scans)	Gridded SACR (scanning ARM cloud radar) PPI and RHI data sets	Gridded radar moments, reflectivity factor, mean Doppler velocity.	Within 2 months of data collection for non-calibrated ‘.c0’ products; ‘.c1’ calibrated products typically within 6 months of campaign end.
SPHOTCOD	Cloud optical depth and additional microphysical retrievals from the sun photometer cloud mode	Cloud optical depth, liquid water path, cloud drop effective radius.	Within 6 months of the end of non-ship-based deployment campaigns, contingent on photometer calibration availability.
VARANAL	Model large-scale forcing data sets through variational analysis techniques	Advective tendency, atmospheric state, precipitation.	Available for selected AMF campaigns to support modeling applications. Typically requires integration of reanalysis and observation data sets. Generally available within 6 months of selected field campaigns.

[1] AOD-MFRSR is considered core for the SGP but is available by request at other sites. AMF deployments with low sun angle or that have frequent cloud cover require more time to process.