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
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 192
Last Page: 216
Publisher Id: TOASCJ-2-192
DOI: 10.2174/1874282300802010192
Article History:
Received Date: 14/7/2008Revision Received Date: 12/8/2008
Acceptance Date: 12/9/2008
Electronic publication date: 22/10/2008
Collection year: 2008
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.
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.