Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility Operations Quarterly Report April 1 - June 30, 2007

Abstract

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 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 third quarter of FY 2007 for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2,074.8 hours (0.95 x 2,184 hours this quarter). The OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) locale is 1,965.6 hoursmore » (0.90 x 2,184), and that for the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) locale is 1,856.4 hours (0.85 x 2,184). The OPSMAX time for the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) is 2,074.8 hours (0.95 x 2,184). 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 percent of data in the Archive represents the average percent of the time (24 hours per day, 91 days for this quarter) the instruments were operating this quarter. Table 1 shows the accumulated maximum operation time (planned uptime), the actual hours of operation, and the variance (unplanned downtime) for the period April 1 through June 30, 2007, for the fixed sites only. The AMF has been deployed to Germany and is operational this quarter. The third quarter comprises a total of 2,184 hours. Although the average exceeded our goal this quarter, there were cash flow issues resulting from Continuing Resolution early in the period that did not allow for timely instrument repairs that kept our statistics lower than past quarters at all sites. The low NSA numbers resulted from missing MFRSR data this spring that appears to be recoverable but not available at the Archive at the time of this report.« less