Guidance / Submitting Proposals: Guideline Overview / Guidelines : Small Campaigns

Small Campaign Guidelines: FY2026 Tethered Balloon System Opportunity

Overview

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility is now accepting small campaign proposals for additional instrument payload on fiscal year 2026 (FY2026) tethered balloon system (TBS) missions at the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatory in Alabama and during the Desert-Urban SysTem IntegratEd AtmospherIc Monsoon (DUSTIEAIM) field campaign in Phoenix, Arizona. The mission durations will be two or three weeks based on deployment location.

These missions are in support of the following campaigns, which are approved to use resources from both ARM and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) through the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program:

Investigating Vertical Profiles of composition and abundance of Fungal Spores and Their Impacts on Regional Climate (IVPFSTIRC) at the BNF
Dust and Regional Organic aerosol Profiling for Land-atmosphere Exchange and Transport for DUSTIEAIM (DROPLET-DUSTIEAIM).

Proposals for this opportunity must be submitted through ARM’s Propose a Field Campaign page.

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Operational Parameters for FY2026 TBS Missions

Missions will be no longer than two weeks in length at DUSTIEAIM and three weeks at the BNF due to existing flight restrictions. BNF missions will include daytime and nighttime flights up to 1.5 kilometers above ground. DUSTIEAIM missions will include daytime and nighttime flights up to 1.3 kilometers above ground. TBS flights at both locations will remain 150 meters below clouds.

The flight operations and mission goals for the approved ARM/EMSL FICUS flight missions, which includes baseline TBS instrumentation and ARM/EMSL FICUS sampling instruments, will be prioritized.

Mission and Proposal Timelines

The table below lists all approved missions for FY2026, their scheduled start dates, and the proposal submission deadline and decision date for each mission. Submissions after the deadline for a mission will not be considered.

Mission	Scheduled Mission Start Date	Proposal Submission Deadline	Proposal Decision Date
BNF I	3/15/26	1/26/26	2/9/26
BNF II	5/1/26	3/27/26	4/13/26
BNF III	7/8/26	3/27/26	4/13/26
DUSTIEAIM Pilot	6/1/26	4/27/26	5/12/26
DUSTIEAIM I	8/9/26	6/26/26	7/13/26
DUSTIEAIM II	9/16/26	6/26/26	7/13/26

Parameters for Proposing for This Opportunity

Proposals should include:

the requested instrumentation
which TBS missions are being requested
the size, weight, and power requirements of the instrument
any specific orientation needs (must remain level, must point into the wind)
any required chemicals, radiological sources, lasers, or other hazards
the desired meteorological conditions for the flights
any required simultaneously operated instrumentation, either for airborne or surface-based instruments
whether the instrumentation requires a fixed-altitude or profiling flight pattern.

Research Funding

ARM provides use of facility resources for campaigns, but does not provide research funding associated with the campaign.

The principal investigator should demonstrate in the proposal that funding for research is secured already or that a research grant is being submitted.

For More Information

Please contact ARM’s lead TBS instrument mentor, Dari Dexheimer, with questions regarding your proposal.

For people interested in proposing for this opportunity, other current ARM calls, or a future opportunity, ARM hosted a field campaign processes webinar in January 2026. During this webinar, staff gave an overview of ARM’s TBS and ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system capabilities, the proposal process, and responsibilities associated with ARM deployments.