Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility Operations Quarterly Report July 1 – September 30, 2008

• Main Author: Sisterson, D. L.
• Other Authors: United States. Department of Energy.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Argonne National Laboratory 2008
• Subjects: Weather; Usa; Data Processing; Environment; Alaska; Radiation Monitoring; Measuring Instruments; Climates; China; Earth Atmosphere; Pollution; Availability; Data; Performance; 54 Environmental Sciences; Pacific; north slope
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/948009; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc899665/

Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real-time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1 – (ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The OPSMAX time for the fourth quarter of FY 2008 for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2,097.60 hours (0.95  2,208 hours this quarter). The OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) locale is 1,987.20 hours (0.90  2,208), and for the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) locale is 1,876.80 hours (0.85  2,208). The OPSMAX time for the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) is not reported this quarter because the data have not yet been released from China to the DMF for processing. The differences in OPSMAX performance reflect the complexity of local logistics and the frequency of extreme weather events. It is impractical to measure OPSMAX for each instrument or data stream. Data availability reported here refers to the average of the individual, continuous data streams that have been received by the Archive. Data not at the Archive are caused by downtime (scheduled or unplanned) of the individual instruments. Therefore, data availability is directly related to individual instrument uptime. Thus, the average percentage of data in the Archive represents the average percentage of the time (24 hours per day, 92 days for this quarter) the instruments were operating this quarter.