Overview of the ARM Aerial Facility
Authors
John Hubbe — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Beat Schmid — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Jennifer M. Comstock — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Jason Tomlinson — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Celine Delphine Kluzek — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Category
Infrastructure & Outreach
Description
The ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) provides airborne measurements to answer science questions proposed by the ASR Science Team and the external research community. The AAF has access to a multitude of research aircraft operated by other agencies; operates a Gulfstream-1 (G-1) turboprop aircraft; and maintains a comprehensive suite of in situ probes and remote sensing instruments to measure the thermodynamic, radiative, gas phase, aerosol, and cloud properties of the atmosphere. The development of some of the instrumentation was done in collaboration with other Department of Energy national laboratories, United States government agencies, universities, and private industry. The G-1 has undergone a number of improvements in recent years: new engines have increased the flight duration, new generators and invertors have increased the available research power, wing pylons enable the aircraft to carry eight external probes, and the onboard data system has been modernized. The AAF now provides real-time mission monitoring (RTMM) during field campaigns, which enables researchers on the ground to view data in Google Earth as they are collected. The AAF is also providing merged data sets for each field campaign following the submission of the final data to the archive. An overview of these capabilities, improvements, and collaborations will be presented.
