July 15, 2024

ARL rounded out our 75th anniversary celebrations with an open house at our Special Operations and Research Division (SORD) in Idaho Falls, ID on June 26, 2024. We were happy to welcome partners, stakeholders, city government officials and congressional staff members. 

 

The day’s agenda included a few words of welcome from Division Director Walter Schalk, ARL Director Ariel Stein and Michael McAnulty, the Deputy Manager for Nuclear Energy Operations and Security, Office of Nuclear Energy, Idaho Operations Office. Walter gave a tour of the “Hall of History,” talking through the history of SORD; from its beginnings in 1948 where they described the meteorology and climatology surrounding the area of the National Reactor Testing Station, now the Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory through today, where SORD’s weather observations and modeling support improved weather predictions and warnings in the region and predictions of the transport and dispersion of hazardous materials and air pollution provide essential information for public health. 

 

After the history tour, Matthew Brewer took time to show off the NOAA-Idaho National Lab Weather Center, where all the meteorological work happens in the office. This room is equipped with several computer stations and  multiple large monitors on the wall. Matthew talked about the weather and climate work that happens in the weather center. Afterwards, Jason gave an introduction of the Idaho National Laboratory Meteorological Monitoring Network, or Mesonet. This network of towers are fully automated meteorological observation stations and range from 50 feet to 150 and 250 feet tall. Later in the morning, attendees got to see a deconstructed tower laid out next to the sidewalk in front of the building so they could get a sense of how tall a 50 foot tower really is by walking the length. Marks at the 150 and 250 feet lengths further along the sidewalk allowed a visual comparison of how much taller and how much more climbing is required for maintenance technicians on the larger towers.

Mathew Corbett and Xavier Hoskins demonstrated the instruments that are installed on the towers and the type of measurements they collect. Attendees could try blowing across a wind sensor, adding water to a precipitation gauge and seeing how they could affect temperature sensors. Matthew and Xavier showed them how the live data from the sensors streaming on a large monitor changed with the different conditions.

An ARL open house is not complete without a balloon release, and the Special Operations and Research Division did not disappoint. A guest volunteer released the balloon into a clear blue sky and everyone watched it disappear into the distance. Attendees saw the data from that release and heard about the process of collecting measurements by weather balloon. 

 

The final stop on the open house agenda was a visit to the Idaho Falls tower and Community Monitoring Board. Visitors got to see one of the actual towers in use, how the instruments and sensors are attached to it, and got a better understanding of the safety requirements for climbing a tower. 

Attendees were engaged throughout the presentations and asked thoughtful questions. We are delighted that this event was so well received. Thank you to everyone who attended, all ARL staff who were involved and a special thank you to Michael McAnulty for his kind words below that he sent after the event.