Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility Operations Quarterly Report. October 1 - December 31, 2010.

Individual raw datastreams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility 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 approximately daily to the ARM Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of processed data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual datastream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 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 first quarter of FY2010 for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 2097.60 hours (0.95 x 2208 hours this quarter). The OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) locale is 1987.20 hours (0.90 x 2208) and for the Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) locale is 1876.80 hours (0.85 x 2208). The first ARM Mobile Facility (AMF1) deployment in Graciosa Island, the Azores, Portugal, continued through this quarter, so the OPSMAX time this quarter is 2097.60 hours (0.95 x 2208). The second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) began deployment this quarter to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The experiment officially began November 15, but most of the instruments were up and running by November 1. Therefore, the OPSMAX time for the AMF2 was 1390.80 hours (.95 x 1464 hours) for November and December (61 days). 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 datastream. Data availability reported here refers to the average of the individual, continuous datastreams 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 percentage of data in the Archive represents the average percentage of the time (24 hours per day, 92 days for this quarter) the instruments were operating this quarter. Summary. Table 1 shows the accumulated maximum operation time (planned uptime), actual hours of operation, and variance (unplanned downtime) for the period October 1-December 31, 2010, for the fixed sites. Because the AMFs operate episodically, the AMF statistics are reported separately and not included in the aggregate average with the fixed sites. This first quarter comprises a total of 2,208 possible hours for the fixed sites and the AMF1 and 1,464 possible hours for the AMF2. The average of the fixed sites exceeded our goal this quarter. The AMF1 has essentially completed its mission and is shutting down to pack up for its next deployment to India. Although all the raw data from the operational instruments are in the Archive for the AMF2, only the processed data are tabulated. Approximately half of the AMF2 instruments have data that was fully processed, resulting in the 46% of all possible data made available to users through the Archive for this first quarter. Typically, raw data is not made available to users unless specifically requested