ARM

ARM joins students and professionals from around the United States for the country’s largest multidisciplinary and multicultural STEM diversity conference

The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) held its annual National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) conference from October 31 to November 2, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona.

During the event at the Phoenix Convention Center, college students and professionals participated in STEM research and career development sessions, as well as multicultural celebrations and traditions.

This was the first year that the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility hosted an exhibit at NDiSTEM. Approximately 130 conference attendees stopped by the booth to learn more about ARM. Representatives shared introductions to ARM capabilities and instructions for accessing ARM’s freely available atmospheric data.

Booth visitors also received information on ARM’s upcoming Desert-Urban SysTem IntegratEd AtmospherIc Monsoon (DUSTIEAIM) field campaign in the Southwestern United States. DUSTIEAIM is scheduled to launch in the Phoenix area in April 2026.

Job and internship seekers who visited the booth learned about roles at the nine U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories that manage and operate ARM.

Information was also shared with booth visitors about DOE’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) and Community College Internships (CCI) programs. Through SULI and CCI, undergraduate students and recent graduates work with national laboratory scientists and engineers, assisting them on research or technology projects that support the DOE mission. In the summer of 2024, researchers mentored SULI interns working with data from ARM’s Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign. Applications are currently being accepted for the summer 2025 term of both programs.

ARM summer school is another way for students and early career researchers to get involved with the user facility. In the NDiSTEM booth, ARM provided information about its planned 2025 open science summer school in Alabama. Similar to past ARM summer schools, participants will learn new techniques for working with ARM data and high-resolution model output to study atmospheric processes, but this time, the focus will be on ARM’s new Bankhead National Forest atmospheric observatory.

“Through activities like the ARM summer school, we are trying to get early career researchers engaged with ARM,” says ARM Director Jim Mather. “We would like to make sure that students and early career scientists from diverse institutions are aware of these opportunities, and SACNAS was a wonderful venue to make new connections.”

In 2025, the SACNAS NDiSTEM conference will be held from October 30 to November 1 in Columbus, Ohio.

Since 1997, Sandia National Laboratories has managed the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s North Slope of Alaska (NSA) atmospheric observatory, overseeing its central facility at Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) and smaller sites nearby.

The long-term partnership between ARM and Sandia is now immortalized in a time capsule that was lowered into the ground as part of Sandia’s 75th anniversary celebration on October 31, 2024.

Items in the time capsule include an ARM award certificate to recognize Sandia’s outstanding management and operations of the NSA, as well as an ARM challenge coin, which is typically given out to ARM’s annual service award winners for their valuable contributions to ARM and its users.

The time capsule also contains a vial of air sampled by NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory in February 2016 at its Utqiaġvik observatory, near the NSA. The air in the vial was approaching 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide, exceeding preindustrial levels.

“This contribution symbolizes a commitment and challenge to future Sandians to continue their efforts in the important and critical mission of addressing climate change and climate security,” says ARM NSA and Tethered Balloon System Manager Andy Glen, who manages Sandia’s atmospheric science department.

Before packing up the time capsule, Sandia displayed the ARM certificate and challenge coin, NOAA air sample, and description of the items in the lobby of its executive leadership/Sandia Field Office building in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The plan is to dig up and open the time capsule in 25 years, when Sandia commemorates its 100th anniversary.

Event in Colorado helps participants calibrate reference instruments to world standard

From September 21 to 27, 2024, groups of scientists and engineers from around the globe, including personnel from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, gathered at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Solar Radiation Research Laboratory on South Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado, for the 24th NREL Pyrheliometer Comparisons (NPC).

While Colorado is a destination for many people, NPC’s participants do not just come for the stunning views and clear skies. As the North American leader in comparisons of pyrheliometers, which are radiometers that measure direct (beam) solar irradiance, NREL keeps its reference instruments calibrated directly to the World Radiometric Reference and World Infrared Standard Group. NREL is also where ARM’s broadband radiometer mentors are based.

Since 1996, NPC has been a gathering place for people from across the globe to calibrate their reference instruments to the world standard. Affectionately referred to as the “sun nerds convention,” NPC serves as a World Meteorological Organization regional comparison for maintaining traceability, which is the ability to trace your measurement back to a standard source that is common to everyone.

NPC hosts participants who seek compliance with the International Organization for Standardization requirements for interlaboratory calibrations.

Participants set up their instruments on the top of South Table Mountain and, beginning at sunrise, start taking solar irradiance measurements in groups of 49 observations at 30-second intervals.

Researchers at the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory analyze the data to provide participants with a ratio of their instrument’s measurement to the NREL reference group, allowing them to calibrate their instruments to the World Radiometric Reference. Maintaining this traceability allows participants to take their instruments back to their organizations and continue conducting and supporting solar resource assessment and atmospheric and climate research with the assurance that their measurements are aligned with the world standard.

Precise Measurements for the ARM Community

ARM technicians James Martin and Jim Stow participated in this year’s NPC along with recently retired ARM staff member Craig Webb to maintain the user facility’s traceability of radiometric measurements. This supports ARM in closing the gap between radiative transfer models and solar irradiance measurements.

This was Martin’s fourth NPC and Stow’s first. The ARM group brought two solar trackers in addition to two cavity pyrheliometers, which are precision instruments that measure the total power of electromagnetic radiation. ARM uses these instruments during the spring and summer at the Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory in Oklahoma to calibrate ARM’s pyrheliometers and pyranometers, which are radiometers that measure total direct and diffuse (sky) solar irradiance.

“NPC is essential for (ARM) and its efforts in ensuring traceability of the ARM radiometers to the World Radiometric Reference,” says Martin.

Held in four out of every five years, NPC helps staff ensure that they are collecting the most precise data possible for ARM, adds Stow.

ARM staff also participate in the International Pyrheliometer Comparison every five years in Davos, Switzerland. It is hosted by the Physical Meteorological Observatory/World Radiation Center. The next international event is provisionally scheduled from September 22 to October 10, 2025.

Editor’s note: This article was adapted from an NREL news feature by Emily Mousel.

Key details and deadlines:

• Funding opportunity DE-FOA-0003484 can be found on the DOE/Biological and Enviromental Research (BER) Funding Opportunities web page.
• Pre-application due date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
• Pre-application response from DOE: Friday, January 24, 2025.
• Submission deadline for applications: Thursday, February 27, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Successful applicants will focus their research on observational, data analysis, and/or modeling studies that use observations supported by DOE’s BER program, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, to address one of the following research topics:

1. atmospheric processes from ARM’s Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE)
2. high-latitude and Southern Ocean atmospheric processes using ARM observations.

“Researchers in the ASR community work on some of the most important and exciting questions facing atmospheric science today,” says ASR Program Manager Jeff Stehr. “This announcement will help fund critical research on cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and the radiative transfer processes that affect our planet’s radiative balance and hydrological cycle—especially those processes that limit the predictive ability of regional and global models.”

Funding will be awarded competitively based on peer review, and total award amounts are expected to range from $200,000 to $975,000, beginning in fiscal year 2025 (FY2025).

The funding opportunity announcement document outlines more details about the research topics, award amounts, length of research projects, eligibility, and other requirements. Pre-applications are required and will be reviewed by DOE program managers to determine their appropriateness for the preparation of an application.

Stehr advises those responding that a new pre-application format and new required elements have been introduced this year. “Please carefully review the pre-application instructions and note that using a previous year’s pre-application as a guide is not recommended.”

• Full details and application instructions are available in FY2025 funding announcement DE-FOA-0003484 on the DOE/BER Funding Opportunities web page.
• Pre-applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.
• DOE will respond to pre-application submitters, informing them whether a full application is encouraged or discouraged by Friday, January 24, 2025. Full applications will be due Thursday, February 27, 2025.