A HIGH-ALTITUDE LONG-RANGE AIRCRAFT CONFIGURED AS A CLOUD OBSERVATORY The NARVAL Expeditions

• Published in: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 100; no. 6; pp. 1061 - 1078
• Main Authors: Stevens, Bjorn, Ament, Felix, Bony, Sandrine, Crewell, Susanne, Ewald, Florian, Gross, Silke, Hansen, Akio, Hirsch, Lutz, Jacob, Marek, Kölling, Tobias, Konow, Heike, Mayer, Bernhard, Wendisch, Manfred, Wirth, Martin, Wolf, Kevin, Bakan, Stephan, Bauer-Pfundstein, Matthias, Brueck, Matthias, Delanoë, Julien, Ehrlich, André, Farrell, David, Forde, Marvin, Gödde, Felix, Grob, Hans, Hagen, Martin, Jäkel, Evelyn, Jansen, Friedhelm, Klepp, Christian, Klingebiel, Marcus, Mech, Mario, Peters, Gerhard, Rapp, Markus, Wing, Allison A., Zinner, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01-06-2019
• Subjects: Airborne observation; Aircraft; Altitude; Atmosphere; Clouds; Earth Sciences; Electromagnetic radiation; Energy transfer; Expeditions; Ground stations; High altitude; Hydrology; Laboratories; Meteorological conditions; Meteorology; Multiship expeditions; Observatories; Ocean, Atmosphere; Physics; Radar; Radiation measurement; Radiometers; Remote sensing; Research aircraft; Sciences of the Universe; Sensors; Velocity distribution; United Kingdom; Germany; Barbados; Florida; France; United States > US
• ISSN: 0003-0007; 1520-0477
• DOI: 10.1175/bams-d-18-0198.1

A configuration of the High-Altitude Long-Range Research Aircraft (HALO) as a remote sensing cloud observatory is described, and its use is illustrated with results from the first and second Next-Generation Aircraft Remote Sensing for Validation (NARVAL) field studies. Measurements from the second NARVAL (NARVAL2) are used to highlight the ability of HALO, when configured in this fashion, to characterize not only the distribution of water condensate in the atmosphere, but also its impact on radiant energy transfer and the covarying large-scale meteorological conditions—including the large-scale velocity field and its vertical component. The NARVAL campaigns with HALO demonstrate the potential of airborne cloud observatories to address long-standing riddles in studies of the coupling between clouds and circulation and are helping to motivate a new generation of field studies.