Research / Research Highlights

Harmonized Aerosol Data Set for 10 DOE ARM Sites

Submitter

Hallar, Gannet — University of Utah
Andrews, Elisabeth — University of Colorado

Area of Research

Aerosol Properties

Journal Reference

Andrews E, I Zabala, G Carrillo-Cardenas, G Titos, J Casquero-Vera, and A Hallar. 2025. "Harmonized aerosol size distribution, cloud condensation nuclei, chemistry and optical properties at 10 sites." Scientific Data, 12(1), 10.1038/s41597-025-04931-y.

Science

This paper describes development of a data set for 10 different U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility sites that harmonize aerosol measurements from multiple collocated instruments. The data set includes aerosol microphysical, chemical and optical properties at hourly and (where possible) 5min resolution.

Impact

The data set is currently being used to investigate the importance of new particle formation (NPF) events on cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and to investigate various methods to predict CCN (e.g., from optical properties) when CCN observations aren't available. Further applications include studying other aerosol processes, model and satellite evaluation of aerosol size distributions and CCN concentrations, and exploring relationships among different aerosol properties, which may be useful for improving model parametrizations.

Summary

A harmonized data set of aerosol particle number size distributions and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations at 10 DOE ARM sites is presented. Additional complementary data including total particle number concentration, aerosol chemical composition, and aerosol optical properties are included where available. Calculated parameters related to particle activation (e.g., activated fraction, hygroscopicity parameter and critical diameter) are provided. DOE ARM data are acquired and processed following DOE ARM protocols which are based on international recommendations. Here, the data have undergone additional stages of quality assessment including various closure tests. High-resolution (5-min) data is provided along with 1-h averaged data.