UEC Update: Change, Challenge, and Communication in ARM

Published: 28 May 2026

ARM’s User Executive Committee (UEC) is eager to engage with you. This is a message from UEC Chair Mike Jensen.

Greetings, all. It’s been a while.

A lot has happened since you last heard from the ARM UEC. At the start of the new UEC term in early 2025, the ARM facility underwent its triennial review. The feedback from that process has generated a number of new action items for ARM to consider and implement. At the same time, the facility has been thinking carefully about how best to contribute to evolving DOE priorities in artificial intelligence (AI), as well as energy and national security.

These developments represent meaningful shifts for ARM and are prompting some important questions. What role should AI play in ARM science and operations? How can ARM data be better leveraged to help improve predictive understanding of energy and national security challenges? These are not small changes, but they are the kinds of shifts that will ultimately help ensure ARM remains adaptable, relevant, and impactful.

Of course, growth and change are not always easy. That’s where communication becomes especially important—and where the UEC is working to help.

To better connect with and support the user community, the UEC has organized into four subgroups focused on key topics:

Field Campaign Proposals (lead: Zhien Wang): This group is working to simplify what many users see as a complex proposal process. Efforts are focused on providing clearer guidance, improving access to templates, and making deadlines and other critical information much easier to find. There is also momentum toward streamlining instrument support requests and refining user-facing tools.

AI/Machine Learning in ARM (lead: Erika Roesler): There is growing excitement in this area. New AI-driven tools demonstrated by the ARM Data Center are already showing promise in making data discovery faster and more intuitive, particularly for new users. Early feedback has been very positive, especially regarding the ability of these tools to connect related data sets and campaigns.

Community Feedback (lead: Mike Jensen): This group is exploring how ARM can better receive feedback and respond to its users. Ideas include suggestion boxes, real-time polling, and embedding feedback opportunities into user workflows. One key takeaway so far is that quick, in-the-moment feedback, such as through web interfaces, may be more effective than traditional email outreach. There is also interest in using AI to help synthesize feedback and in following up with users after data delivery.

Modeling Community Engagement (co-leads: Sarah Brooks and Kai Zhang): The focus here is on strengthening connections between observations and models. Priorities include developing consistent definitions, enabling careful comparisons, and avoiding practices that can obscure the underlying physics (e.g., over-nudging). The group is also planning outreach through workshops, surveys, and coordination with efforts such as AeroCom and DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).

Across all of these activities, a common theme continues to emerge: communication. Whether between data and models, developers and users, or ARM and the broader community, clear and effective communication is necessary. It is also a shared goal and an ongoing challenge for ARM and the UEC.

The UEC is actively working to enhance communication by engaging more directly with the ARM user community. Look for us at the upcoming ARM/Atmospheric System Research (ASR) joint virtual meeting, where we will share updates on our activities during a short plenary presentation and through a poster session. We encourage you to ask questions, share your experiences, and provide feedback. You can also reach out to me or any UEC member at any time during the meeting.

Let’s keep the conversation going.