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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 11, NUMBER 11, NOVEMBER 1998

NEWS...
ARM Tropical Western Pacific Station Dedicated

Item #d98nov43

The dedication of the Nauru Tropical Western Pacific Station of the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program was reported by ENN on November 24 (Internet: http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1998/11/112498/climstation.asp). The dedication of the station in Nauru, Papua New Guinea, was presided over by Wanda Ferrell, ARM Program director, and Derog Gioura, Acting President of Nauru. The station is the second of three being developed in the region by ARM Program. The first station has been operating on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea since October 1996. The ARM Program operates two other sites, one on the North Slope of Alaska and one in the Southern Great Plains in Oklahoma and Kansas.

The Tropical Western Pacific stations collect climate information, focusing on how the sun’s energy is transmitted, absorbed, and reflected and on how clouds aid in heating and cooling the atmosphere. Some data are transmitted directly to the United States by satellite, and some are stored on magnetic tapes and shipped stateside for processing. Nauru was chosen for the site because of its proximity to the eastern edge of the Pacific warm pool, which has the warmest sea-surface temperatures in the world and produces many clouds. Data gathered in the ARM Program will help explain the relationships between clouds and the sun’s incident and reflected energy. These data are used to improve computerized climate models.