ARMBE: ARM Best Estimate Data Products

The ARM Best Estimate data product (ARMBE, Xie et al., 2010), formerly known as Climate Modeling Best Estimate (CMBE) dataset, was created to encourage greater use of ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) data in climate studies and model development by the climate community. It assembles a best estimate of several cloud, radiation, and atmospheric quantities that are both well observed by ACRF and commonly used in model evaluation into one single dataset. These quantities are measured by a set of ACRF ground-based active and passive remote-sensing instruments for over two decades, including millimeter-wavelength cloud radars (MMCRs), micropulse lidars (MPLs), laser ceilometers, microwave radiometers (MWRs), solar and infrared radiation stations (SIRSs), and total sky imagers (TSIs). Table 1 below shows the geophysical quantities included in the ARMBE dataset. [Read More on ARM ...]

The ARMBE data product is specifically tailored to climate modelers for use in the evaluation of global climate models, with hourly temporal resolution comparable to a typical resolution used in climate model output. It also includes standard deviations within the averaged hour and quality control flags for the selected quantities to indicate the temporal variability and data quality. Currently, the ARMBE data product is available at the ARM Southern Great Plain (SGP), Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) and North Slope Alaska (NSA) Research Facility. The data can be downloaded through the ARM Data Archive.

For more details, please refer to One-page description for the ARM Best Estimate Data Products

Reference:
Xie, S, and 16-coauthors, 2010: Clouds and more: ARM climate modeling best estimate data. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 91, 13-20. doi:10.1175/2009BAMS2891.1.

If you have any questions regarding this data product, please contact Yuying Zhang (zhang24@llnl.gov) or Shuaiqi Tang (tang32@llnl.gov).