On May 16th 2008, Launch Ceremony of ARM Comprehensive Observation Program was held at Shouxian National Climate Observatory in Anhui Province. Nearly 50 researchers and officials from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP/CAS), the University of Maryland(USA), Anhui Provincial Meteorological Bureau, Anhui Science and Technology Department, Atmospheric Observation Technology Center of CMA, Anhui Science and Technology Association, etc., attended the ceremony; among them are Prof. Lv Da-ren (academician with IAP/CAS), Dr. Chen Hong-bin (deputy director of IAP), Ms. Hu Wen (deputy director of Anhui Provincial Meteorological Bureau), Prof. Li Zhan-qing (University of Maryland,USA), and Mr. Kim Nitschke (representative on the US side for the DOE ARM project).

The Comprehensive Observation Program is to utilize advanced ARM Mobile Facilities (AMF) to study climatic and environmental effects of aerosol in regions where human activities have heavy impact, through continuous ground-based remote-sensing observation on aerosol-cloud-radiation and in combination with satellite remote-sensing data.(LAGEO)