Overview of boundary layer thermodynamics and cloud characteristics during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern Northern Atlantic (ACE-ENA) Intensive Observation Periods

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Description

The Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign included two Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs): 21 June through 20 July 2017 IOP1 and 15 January through 18 February 2018. Each IOP involved the deployment of the ARM Gulfstream-159 (G-1) aircraft with a suite of in situ cloud and aerosol instrumentation in the vicinity of the ARM Climate Research Facility Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site on Graciosa Island, Azores. Here we present an overview of the thermodynamic characteristics of the marine boundary layer and the variability of cloud properties as observed by the ground-based sensors at the ENA site. Analysis of atmospheric state observations from radiosonde profiles and surface meteorology is used to characterize the thermodynamic structure of the marine boundary layer including the coupling state and stability. Observations from vertically pointing cloud radar and lidar provide quantification of the macrophysical and microphysical properties of the mixed boundary layer cloud fields.