RESEARCH ARTICLE


An Overview of ARM Program Climate Research Facility Data Quality Assurance



R.A. Pepplera, *, C.N. Longb, D.L. Sistersonc, D.D. Turnerd, C.P. Bahrmanne, S.W. Christensenf, K.J. Dotyg, R.C. Eaganc, T.D. Halterb, M.D. Iveyhh, N.N. Keckb, K.E. Kehoea, J.C. Liljegrenc, M.C. Macduffb, J.H. Matherb, R.A. McCordf, J.W. Monroea, S.T. Moorei, K.L. Nitschkej, B.W. Orrc, R.C. Perezb, B.D. Perkinsj, S.J. Richardsone, K.L. Sonntaga, J.W. Voyles, R. Wagenerg
a Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
b Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
c Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
d University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
e Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
f Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
g Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
h Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
i Mission Research and Technical Services, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
j Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA


© 2008 Peppler et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; E-mail: rpeppler@ou.edu


Abstract

We present an overview of key aspects of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) data quality assurance program. Processes described include instrument deployment and calibration; instrument and facility maintenance; data collection and processing infrastructure; data stream inspection and assessment; problem reporting, review and resolution; data archival, display and distribution; data stream reprocessing; engineering and operations management; and the roles of value-added data processing and targeted field campaigns in specifying data quality and characterizing field measurements. The paper also includes a discussion of recent directions in ACRF data quality assurance. A comprehensive, end-to-end data quality assurance program is essential for producing a high-quality data set from measurements made by automated weather and climate networks. The processes developed during the ARM Program offer a possible framework for use by other instrumentation- and geographically-diverse data collection networks and highlight the myriad aspects that go into producing research-quality data.

Keywords: Data quality assurance, instrumentation, climate, clouds, atmospheric radiation.