Search results for "Cirrus"

Influence of ice crystal shape on retrieval of cirrus optical thickness and effective radius: A case study

2009

Airborne measurements of spectral upwelling radiances (350A¢Â�Â�2200 nm) reflected by cirrus using the Spectral Modular Airborne Radiation measurement sysTem (SMART)-Albedometer were made over land and water surfaces. Based on these data, cloud optical thickness tau and effective radius Reff of the observed cirrus were retrieved. By using different crystal shape assumptions (hexagonal plates, solid and hollow columns, rough aggregates, planar and spatial rosettes, ice spheres, and a mixture of particle habits) in the retrieval, the influence of crystal shape on the retrieved tau and Reff was evaluated. With relative differences of up to 70%, the influence of particle habit on t is larger th…

2011

Abstract. In situ measurements of ice crystal size distributions in tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) clouds were performed during the SCOUT-AMMA campaign over West Africa in August 2006. The cloud properties were measured with a Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe (FSSP-100) and a Cloud Imaging Probe (CIP) operated aboard the Russian high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica with the mission base in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A total of 117 ice particle size distributions were obtained from the measurements in the vicinity of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS). Two to four modal lognormal size distributions were fitted to the average size distributions for diffe…

Aircraft type influence on contrail properties

2013

The investigation of the impact of aircraft parameters on contrail properties helps to better understand the climate impact from aviation. Yet, in observations, it is a challenge to separate aircraft and meteorological influences on contrail formation. During the CONCERT campaign in November 2008, contrails from 3 Airbus passenger aircraft of types A319-111, A340-311 and A380-841 were probed at cruise under similar meteorological conditions with in situ instruments on board DLR research aircraft Falcon. Within the 2 min-old contrails detected near ice saturation, we find similar effective diameters Deff (5.2–5.9 μm), but differences in particle number densities nice (162–235 cm−3) and…

Balloon-borne match measurements of midlatitude cirrus clouds

2014

Observations of high supersaturations with respect to ice inside cirrus clouds with high ice water content (> 0.01 g kg−1) and high crystal number densities (> 1 cm−3) are challenging our understanding of cloud microphysics and of climate feedback processes in the upper troposphere. However, single measurements of a cloudy air mass provide only a snapshot from which the persistence of ice supersaturation cannot be judged. We introduce here the "cirrus match technique" to obtain information about the evolution of clouds and their saturation ratio. The aim of these coordinated balloon soundings is to analyze the same air mass twice. To this end the standard radiosonde equipment is complemente…

Evaluation of the MOZAIC Capacitive Hygrometer during the airborne field study CIRRUS-III

2018

The MOZAIC Capacitive Hygrometer (MCH) is usually operated aboard passenger aircraft in the framework of MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone by Airbus In-Service Aircraft) for measuring atmospheric relative humidity (RH). In order to evaluate the performance of the MCH, the instrument was operated aboard a Learjet 35A research aircraft as part of the CIRRUS-III field study together with a closed-cell Lyman-α fluorescence hygrometer (Fast in situ Stratospheric Hygrometer, or FISH) and an open-path tunable diode laser system (Open-path Jülich Stratospheric TDL ExpeRiment, or OJSTER) for water vapour measurement. After reducing the CIRRUS-III data set to data corresponding to MOZAIC aircraft operatio…

In-situ observations of young contrails – overview and selected results from the CONCERT campaign

2010

Lineshaped contrails were detected with the research aircraft Falcon during the CONCERT – CONtrail and Cirrus ExpeRimenT – campaign in October/November 2008. The Falcon was equipped with a set of instruments to measure the particle size distribution, shape, extinction and chemical composition as well as trace gas mixing ratios of sulfur dioxide (SO<sub>2</sub>), reactive nitrogen and halogen species (NO, NO<sub>y</sub>, HNO<sub>3</sub>, HONO, HCl), ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) and carbon monoxide (CO). During 12 mission flights over Europe, numerous contrails, cirrus clouds and a volcanic aerosol layer were probed at altitudes between 8.5 and 11.6 km…

Airborne measurements of the nitric acid partitioning in persistent contrails

2009

This study reports the first systematic measurements of nitric acid (HNO3) uptake in contrail ice particles at typical aircraft cruise altitudes. During the CIRRUS-III campaign cirrus clouds and almost 40 persistent contrails were probed with in situ instruments over Germany and Northern Europe in November 2006. Besides reactive nitrogen, water vapor, cloud ice water content, ice particle size distributions, and condensation nuclei were measured during 6 flights. Contrails with ages up to 12 h were detected at altitudes 10–11.5 km and temperatures 211–220 K. These contrails had a larger ice phase fraction of total nitric acid (HNO3ice/HNO3tot = 6%) than the ambient cirrus layers (3%). On av…

Evidence for heterogeneous chlorine activation in the tropical UTLS

2011

Airborne in-situ observations of ClO in the tropics were made during the TROCCINOX (Aracatuba, Brazil, February 2005) and SCOUT-O<sub>3</sub> (Darwin, Australia, November/December 2005) field campaigns. While during most flights significant amounts of ClO (≈10–20 parts per trillion, ppt) were present only in aged stratospheric air, instances of enhanced ClO mixing ratios of up to 40 ppt – significantly exceeding those expected from gas phase chemistry – were observed in air masses of a more tropospheric character. Most of these observations are associated with low temperatures or with the presence of cirrus clouds (often both), suggesting that cirrus ice particles and/or liquid …

Porous aerosol in degassing plumes of Mt. Etna and Mt. Stromboli

2016

Abstract. Aerosols of the volcanic degassing plumes from Mt. Etna and Mt. Stromboli were probed with in situ instruments on board the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt research aircraft Falcon during the contrail, volcano, and cirrus experiment CONCERT in September 2011. Aerosol properties were analyzed using angular scattering intensities and particle size distributions simultaneously measured with the Polar Nephelometer and the Forward Scattering Spectrometer probes (FSSP series 100 and 300), respectively. Aerosols of degassing plumes are characterized by low values of the asymmetry parameter (between 0.6 and 0.75); the effective diameter was within the range of 1.5–2.8 µm and the…

Influence of heterogeneous freezing on the microphysical and radiative properties of orographic cirrus clouds

2013

The influence of heterogeneous freezing on the microphysical and optical properties of orographic cirrus clouds has been simulated with the large eddy simulation model EULAG. Idealised simulations with different concentrations of ice nuclei (IN) in a dynamically dominated regime with high vertical velocities have been performed. Furthermore the temperature at cloud formation as well as the critical supersaturation for initiation of heterogenous freezing have been varied. The shortwave, longwave and net cloud forcing has been calculated under the assumption that the clouds form between 06:00 and 12:00 local time (LT) or between 12:00 and 18:00 LT. In general it can be seen that the onset of …