| << | Profiling of Clouds | >> |
Abstract
The VOCALS-REX (VAMOS [Variability of the American MOnsoon Systems] Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional EXperiment) field campaign was carried out in October and November 2008 off the coast of northern Chile to measure properties of the atmosphere above, within and below the stratocumulus deck over the southern Pacific Ocean.
As part of this study several aircraft were flown to measure and intercompare cloud and aerosol properties. One of them was the Dornier 228 operated by the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF). As well as collecting in-situ aerosol and meteorological data, the aircraft played an important role in collecting remote sensing data. Remote sensing instruments on board included the AISA Eagle & Hawk hyperspectral instruments, a polarimeter and an aerosol lidar, which were all used together to discover cloud properties
The aerosol lidar is an ALS300 instrument supplied by Leosphere. The raw data output has a time resolution of 1 second and range resolution of 1.5 metres. A flight speed of approximately 100 metres per second translates to a horizontal resolution of 100 metres. Data were collected for most of the 15 science flights carried out over the South-East Pacific. Measurements of cloud top height and aerosol backscatter are presented for these flights and initial conclusions show that the cloud deck height is around 1 kilometre and increases further out to sea.