What is the ARM Program Doing About Global Warming?

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) scientists are studying the effects of clouds on weather and climate. Clouds are a very important piece of the global warming puzzle. They use data gathered by special instruments located at the three ARM field sites around the world to test their global climate models.

To understand what is happening today and what might happen tomorrow, scientists make hypotheses (or educated guesses) about what is going on. They test their guesses by running mathematical models and comparing them with actual data provided by instruments that measure atmospheric properties. Sometimes their guesses are tested in models and confirmed; sometimes they are wrong. The scientists fine tune the models and try it all over again.

As the models are improved, the predictions will become more accurate. The scientists then will be able to make recommendations to the leaders of the world on how to avoid major global warming problems.

Want More Detail?

The research objectives are to describe quantitatively the radiation balance from the surface to the top of the atmosphere, to determine the atmospheric characteristics responsible for this balance, to improve the parameterization of the formation and evolution of clouds in climate models, and to operate an experimental testbed for testing process models used in global climate models and for providing satellite ground-truth measurements.

The research involves a network of ground-based remote-sensing instruments along with campaign studies that use manned and unmanned aircraft. Measurements include vertical profiles of temperature, water vapor, trace gases, aerosols, and solar and infrared radiation. The ARM data provide the testbed for the process models representing the cloud-climate feedbacks in the currently available general circulation models as well as in the future climate-change-prediction models of regional-scale resolution.