Planned Additions to the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facilities on the North Slope of Alaska

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provides scientific infrastructure and data archives to the international arctic research community through a national user facility, the ARM Climate Research Facilities (ACRF), located on the North Slope of Alaska. The ACRF installations at Barrow and Atqasuk, Alaska have been collecting and archiving atmospheric data for more than ten years. These data have been used for scientific investigation as well as satellite remote sensing validations in the Arctic.

ACRF's role is to provide infrastructure support for climate research, including arctic research, to the global scientific community. DOE's climate research programs, with a focus on clouds and aerosols and their impact on the radiative budget, define the research scope supported by the Facility. This paper discusses the scientific infrastructure, data streams and archives, planned field campaigns, and opportunities for future collaborative research on the North Slope of Alaska. New instruments to be added to the Barrow and Atqasuk facilities will be discussed, as well as a second mobile atmospheric measurement facility developed for operations in the Arctic. This second mobile facility is expected to become operational in late 2010.