THNDRHD

Colorado: Thunderhead Radiative Flux Analysis Campaign

15 November 2010 - 25 April 2011

Lead Scientist: Chuck Long

Observatory: AMF, SBS

The intent of the StormVex [Storm Peak Lab Cloud Property Validation Experiment] campaign was to create a correlative data set equivalent to between 200 and 300 aircraft flights in liquid and mixed phase clouds. This was achieved by placing the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) in close proximity to an elevated platform that was heavily instrumented with aerosol, cloud and precipitation sensors. Storm Peak Lab (located east of Steamboat Springs, Colorado) is located at 3210m above sea level and was augmented with additional instruments that are typically used for airborne cloud research. The AMF2 operated at a location approximately 2.4 km west and lower in elevation (at 500m). However, the AMF2 main ground and sky radiometer set were placed at this valley floor location while the cloud remote sensors were deployed near the top of the gondola at the higher elevation site, a location designated as Thunderhead for the campaign. Having radiative closure at the Thunderhead and Storm Peak Lab sites was crucial for the optimal success of the StormVex campaign, thus we deployed a small radiometer system designed for small-footprint and remote deployments at both Thunderhead and Storm Peak Lab. These Basic Radiative Flux Analysis Systems (BRFAS) collected the measurements needed as inputs into the Radiative Flux Analysis package. Thus the BRFAS deployments provided not only radiation measurements needed for radiative closure at the Thunderhead and Storm Peak sites, but additional retrieved radiation and cloud parameters that complimented the AMF2 cloud remote sensors and in-situ sensors. In addition, the operational needs of the campaign benefited from the deployment of a Total Sky Imager with an upgraded camera that gave usable sky imagery under low light conditions. These data and data products were made available as part of the IOP data set.