Tethered Balloon System Merged Data Produced for BNF and CoURAGE Flights

Published: 30 December 2025

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility has released production data from the Tethered Balloon System (TBS) Merged value-added product (TBSMERGED VAP) for flights at the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) atmospheric observatory in northern Alabama and the Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE) in the Baltimore, Maryland, area.

The TBSMERGED VAP combines data from TBS instruments and ground-based ceilometers, allowing for examination of cloud-base and boundary-layer heights while making it easier to access and use measurements from ARM TBS missions.

TBSMERGED data from the BNF’s main site are available from March 21, 2025, through the latest flight on August 24, 2025. No more flights are planned at the BNF until March 2026 at the earliest.

A complete set of data from the CoURAGE TBS site on the Chesapeake Bay’s eastern shore is available for flights from February 13 through August 8, 2025.

More information about the VAP, including the technical report, can be found on the TBSMERGED web page.

Access the new TBSMERGED data in the ARM Data Center. (To download the data, first create an ARM account.)

For questions, feedback, or to report data issues, please contact Darielle Dexheimer, ARM’s lead TBS instrument mentor.

To cite the TBSMERGED data, please use doi:10.5439/1862017.