The Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program installed the first tropical western Pacific Atmospheric Radiation and Cloud Station on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea in October, 1996. This site has been operating continuously since that time and has collected nearly two years of surface radiation and meteorological data. Other measurements at this site include observations of cloud base height using a cloud lidar, vertically integrated water vapor using a microwave radiometer, and daily soundings.
Many of the measurements at the Manus ARM site including down-welling radiative surface fluxes, column water vapor, and cloudiness exhibit a strong cyclic nature with a period consistent with the Madden-Julian oscillation. The Manus data set is unprecedented in providing a long term record of the surface radiation budget and accompanying parameters in the tropical Pacific. We will examine these data and compare them with with previous observations related to the Madden-Julian oscillation