DOE/Australian Agreement to Provide Climate Measurements

Summary

Through a collaborative agreement between the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), an Atmospheric Radiation and Cloud Station (ARCS) is being installed in Darwin, Australia. This will be the third ARCS installed in the ARM Tropical Western Pacific locale. Existing ARCS are on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru Island in the central Pacific. Site preparation for the Darwin site began in August and equipment will begin to be installed in September. It is expected that the Darwin ARCS will be fully operational by March 2002. Darwin lies in a region that includes the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Thus, the site has the advantage of being able to provide measurements typical of the tropical phenomena of the oceanic warm pool area. In addition, Darwin can also provide measurements of another important climatic regime, the monsoonal climate, that affects many of the populated land areas in many parts of the world. Darwin experiences this monsoonal climate for about half the year. The site will be operated by the BOM under the agreement that also includes a collaborative research component with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre.