Tethered Balloon System Operations at ARM AMF3 Site at Oliktok Point, AK

Description

Oliktok Point has been the home of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program’s (ARM) third ARM Mobile Facility, or AMF3, since October 2013. The AMF3 is operated through Sandia National Laboratories and hosts instrumentation collecting continuous measurements of clouds, aerosols, precipitation, energy, and other meteorological variables. The Arctic region is warming more quickly than any other region due to climate change and Arctic sea ice is declining to record lows. Sparsity of atmospheric data from the Arctic leads to uncertainty in process comprehension. Atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM) are used to improve understanding of processes in the Arctic but often contain biases leading to unrealistic atmospheric states in the Arctic. It is suspected that improvements in AGCMs combined with in situ cloud and meteorological measurements will improve process understanding and help AGCMs better characterize the Arctic. SNL operates the ARM Tethered Balloon System (TBS) at AMF3 in order to provide high vertical resolution atmospheric data within the lowest 7,000’ of the atmosphere. The tethered balloon can be operated within clouds at altitudes up to 7,000’ AGL within DOE’s R-2204 restricted area. Pressure, relative humidity, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction are recorded by tethersondes at multiple altitudes along the tether. Wireless wetness sensors and supercooled liquid water content sensors are also deployed. Other temperature sensors and cloud particle sondes are planned for deployment on the TBS in 2016. This presentation will provide an overview of ARM TBS infrastructure, capabilities, and sensors. Previous, current, and planned TBS operations will be summarized and preliminary data from TBS flights will be discussed.