ARM Tethered Balloon System Measurements from POPEYE IOP at AMF3

Description

ARM’s Tethered Balloon System (TBS) was operated at the AMF3 in Oliktok Point, Alaska, during the POPEYE (Profiling at Oliktok Point to Enhance YOPP Experiments) Field Campaign (FC) for 138 hours during the summer of 2018. These tethered balloon flights were conducted within clouds at altitudes up to 1.45 km within Restricted Airspace R-2204 at Oliktok Point. Aerosol instrumentation flown on the TBS during the POPEYE FC included two Printed Optical Particle Spectrometers (POPS), which measured particle diameters between approximately 0.15 and 3.0 µm, and a Condensation Particle Counter (CPC), which can measure smaller particle diameters between approximately 0.01 and 1.0 µm. Thermodynamic instrumentation included Distributed Temperature Sensing optical fiber, which measured temperature every 0.25m between the surface and the balloon, and iMet radiosondes and iMet XQ2 sensors at each aerosol instrument and distributed at intervals along the tether to record temperature and relative humidity. Wind speed measurements were collected at regular intervals along the tether using boom-mounted anemometers, and supercooled liquid water content was measured at multiple altitudes within clouds using vibrating-wire sensors. We present descriptions of the datasets associated with these sensors, and discuss the quality-controlled data processing, and the data availability. Future TBS data from the deployments at AMF3 and SGP will be discussed as well. We also examine an interesting case from the POPEYE FC using all of the TBS data from a flight, to demonstrate how the varied instruments and ground-based AMF3 sensors may be used in combination.