Enhanced measurements with the ARM tethered balloon system at Oliktok Point during ICARUS
Poster PDF
Authors
Matthew Shupe — University of Colorado
Sergey Matrosov — University of Colorado
Carl G. Schmitt — National Center for Atmospheric Research
Ian Brooks — University of Leeds
Gijs de Boer — University of Colorado
Darielle Dexheimer — Sandia National Laboratories
Hagen Telg — Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
Maximilian Maahn — Leipzig University
David D. Turner — NOAA- Global Systems Laboratory
Christopher R Williams — University of Colorado, Boulder
Category
High-latitude clouds and aerosols
Description
In October 2017, as part of the ICARUS campaign, the tethered balloon system (TBS) at Oliktok Point, Alaska was used to make advanced measurements of atmospheric turbulence, ice crystal images, and aerosol number concentrations. These enhanced measurements augmented the periodic TBS observations of atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, liquid water content, and winds. The October observing period captured a number of unique Arctic scenes including low-level mixed-phase clouds, stable boundary layers, stratified layers of aerosol, and precipitation. The value of these enhanced measurements for process research will be highlighted. Specifically, turbulence measurements from a sonic anemometer flown on the TBS will be used in coordination with ground-based active sensors, TBS-based meteorological measurements, and radiosonde profiles to characterize the vertical structure of atmospheric mixing during cases of interest. Comparisons of vertical atmospheric structure will be made with atmospheric measurements from Datahawk unmanned aircraft that were flow during the same period. Coordinated aerosol measurements made by the TBS-borne POPS and from the surface-based Aerosol Observing System reveal how the atmospheric thermodynamic and dynamic structure serves to constrain the vertical distribution of aerosol number concentration. Lastly, TBS-borne ice crystal image measurements from a Video Ice Particle Sensor (VIPS) and ground-based images from the Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC) are used to characterize particle habits during precipitation events and to assess particle habit retrievals from ground-based radar.
