Description and Status of ARM Shortwave Hyperspectral Measurements from the SASZe, and SASHe at the ARM SGP, AMF1, and AMF2 deployments.

Description

Detailed measurements of shortwave radiation have been one of the defining efforts of ARM. Narrowband optical instruments such as the MFR, MFRSR, and Cimel sun photometer have been core elements of ARM deployments since the beginning of the program. These spectral measurements, though limited to specific wavelength regions, provide a wealth of information regarding the properties of the atmospheric column including precipitable water vapor, aerosol optical depth, cloud optical properties, and more. In conjunction with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARM procured several new hyperspectral instruments (SAS-Ze, SAS-He) which span and extend the spectral regions of the existing narrowband instruments with contiguous high resolution measurements. The contiguous high resolution measurements have the potential to provide even more detailed atmospheric information and also to provide quantitative uncertainties for the existing narrowband spectral data products. To date the SAS-Ze and SAS-he instruments have been deployed in tandem with existing ARM shortwave spectrometers at SGP (SWS and RSS), and also independently in support of AMF1 and AMF2 deployments – most recently at Cape Cod (PVC), the marine MAGIC (MAG) deployment, and currently with GoAmazon (MAO) . We present system descriptions for the SAS-He and SAS-Ze instruments and an overview of available data products from these instruments at the various deployments.