Mobile Facility
Instrument field near Niamey, Niger.
Cutaway view of an AMF instrument shelter.
To explore science questions beyond those addressed by ACRF's fixed sites at the Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska, and Tropical Western Pacific locales, researchers can use an ARM Mobile Facility (AMF). With instrumentation and data systems similar to the fixed sites, the AMF is designed to operate in any environment—from the cold of the Arctic to the heat of the tropics—for campaigns lasting 6-12 months. The first AMF was deployed in 2005 and is currently in China; a second AMF (AMF2) is under development and is scheduled for deployment in 2010 at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Portability and flexibility are the keys to the design of the AMF that help ensure successful deployments. The AMF consists of a minimum of two lightweight shelters, a baseline suite of instruments, data communications, and data systems. When applicable, the AMF will also be able to deploy in either an existing facility or other suitable shelters. Instrument capabilities include the standard meteorological instrumentation, broadband and spectral radiometer suite, and remote sensing instruments. With this suite of instruments, the AMF provides researchers with data from various climatic regimes not previously explored. The AMF also has the capacity (space, power, and processing) to add a significant amount of additional instruments.
