Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Portable Automated Research Micrometeorological Stations (PARMS) Designed for Enhanced Local Monitoring of Atmospheric Processes
Recently, four portable automated research micrometeorological stations (PARMS) were designed and fabricated by staff at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey to provide enhanced observations of atmospheric conditions at remote locations at or near permanent Oklahoma Mesonet sites. Each station includes sensors to measure standard meteorological variables including air temperature and humidity at 1.5 m and downwelling solar radiation. However, the sites also include a 3-dimensional sonic anemometer at 2 m, a net radiometer, and an infrared temperature sensor to measure surface skin temperature, and a pyranometer mounted to measure reflected shortwave radiation. The combination of sensors will allow the sites to measure additional variables of the surface and radiation budgets including sensible heat flux and albedo. Furthermore, the stations were designed to be highly mobile. As such, two nearly assembled sites can easily fit into the bed of a pickup truck or on a trailer, and deployed in remote locations with approximately an hour of installation time. This study will document the design of the sites, intercomparisons with observations from Oklahoma Mesonet sites, and initial field results.
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