Guidelines : ArcticShark Missions in FY2025

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility is now accepting letters of intent and abbreviated proposals from scientists to deploy ARM’s ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system in fiscal year 2025 to support the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program’s scientific interests in the region of ARM’s Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatory.

Two payload options are available and, if sufficient justification is provided, may be exchanged twice at most during the 20-day period. The option of adding guest instruments to the payload is not supported at this time.

The ArcticShark will take off and land from either Cullman Regional Airport (CMD, 34°16’00″N 86°51’30″W) or Posey Field Airport (1M4, 34°16’49″N 87°36’02″W) (see green stars on the map below).

Research flights will be limited to the operating area inside a polygon (solid yellow line on the map) and only east of 87°31’33″W (dashed yellow line).

Typical minimum flight altitudes are 1,500 feet above ground level (AGL) in the operations area. Lower minimum flight altitudes as low as 500 feet AGL might be possible along a reasonable number of pre-selected and pre-surveyed routes within ~10 nautical miles of the BNF main site (M1 on the map).

During periods when the tethered balloon system is operated, ArcticShark flights will be conducted no closer than 2 nautical miles from the BNF M1 site (blue circle on the map).

No sustained operations will be conducted over the Sipsey Wilderness (white line on the map). The minimal altitude to cross the Sipsey Wilderness is 10,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL).

Maximum flight altitudes are 17,500 feet MSL. Actual maximum flight altitude will be governed by the temperature profile encountered (i.e., lower at warmer temperatures).

All flights must maintain legal separation from clouds. Below 10,000 feet MSL, the required separation from clouds is 500 feet below, 1,000 feet above, and 2,000 feet lateral. At or above 10,000 feet MSL, the required separation from clouds is 1,000 feet below, 1,000 feet above, and 1 statute mile lateral.

Flights into clouds or precipitation or between sunset and sunrise are not allowed. Minimum visibility requirement is 5 statute miles.

Maximum flight duration with the current payloads could be as long as six hours, but practically, a maximum flight duration of five hours should be considered (shorter if dictated by weather or airport traffic).

Other operational limitations may have to be imposed, including but not limited to not flying on certain days with high traffic volume.

Proposals shall identify the desired spatial and altitude domain within the limitations stated above.

Submitting a letter of intent is greatly appreciated to assist ARM in organizing the review of proposals in a timely fashion. This is not mandatory; however, knowing the high-level scope and number of proposals allows ARM to prepare the review to begin as soon as proposals arrive. This also allows ARM to confirm your activity is within ARM’s ability to support. If we find it is not, we will contact you immediately to avoid any unnecessary effort.

To submit a letter of intent, please provide the following information in the letter of intent/proposal form by Friday, March 7, 2025:

• one sentence noting the intent to use both ArcticShark and BNF measurements and with which area of BER strategic goals the science will be aligned.
• which of the two time periods offered (June or August 2025) you are proposing for. Note: You may propose for both periods, but priority will need to be provided in case only one may be approved.
• a brief description of notional flight patterns (geographical area, altitudes).
• known co-investigators.

To submit a proposal to this call, please use the ARM abbreviated proposal template format. (The format is outlined on Page C.3 of the ARM Field Campaign Guidelines.) Upload the document to the letter of intent/proposal form by Friday, March 21, 2025.

Questions regarding this call should be asked through the Help link, which is located at the bottom of every ARM web page (select “Campaigns and Accessing ARM Facilities”).

For people interested in proposing for an ArcticShark deployment or using ArcticShark data in their research, ARM hosted an ArcticShark webinar in September 2023. Participants received an overview of ArcticShark operations and technology, gained insight into its available instrument payload and measurement capabilities, learned how to access ArcticShark data and integrate them into their research, and viewed science examples presented by ARM users.