Atmospheric state parameters observed during ICARUS
Poster PDF
Authors
Fan Mei — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
John Hubbe — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Darielle Dexheimer — Sandia National Laboratories
Jessica Cherry — International Arctic Research Center
Beat Schmid — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Gijs de Boer — University of Colorado
Dale Lawrence — University of Colorado
Matthew Shupe — University of Colorado
Mark D. Ivey — Sandia National Laboratories
Category
High-latitude clouds and aerosols
Description
In 2014, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility began a major reconfiguration to more tightly link its measurements and atmospheric models. During the reconfiguration, its North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site is upgrading to include additional observations to support modeling and process studies. The Inaugural Campaigns for ARM Research using Unmanned Systems (ICARUS) has been launched in 2016. This internal initiative at Oliktok Point, Alaska, focused on developing an operational routine for a small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) – DataHawk and a Tethered Balloon System (TBS). The main purpose of ICARUS was to practice joint operations/observations of the sUAS and TBS in the vicinity of Eddy-Correlation Flux Measurement System (ECOR), characterizing the boundary layer in the region of the NSA. ICARUS collected spatial data about surface radiation, heat fluxes, and vertical profiles of the basic atmospheric state (temperature, humidity, and horizontal wind) during 61 DataHawk flights (~ 39 hours) and 56 hours of TBS deployment in FY16.
Based on the data collected during ICARUS, we will develop future operational routines for atmospheric state measurement, and then optimize the operation schedule to maximize the scientific data-collection capability. A comparison of atmospheric state parameters derived from the platforms mentioned above will be discussed.
