SAILVAPS

Vertical Aerosol Profiling during SAIL

1 April 2022 - 1 November 2022

Lead Scientist: Russell Perkins

Observatory: AMF

The Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign aims to understand water and energy budgets. A key aspect of this is characterizing cloud-interacting particle populations: cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particles (INPs). It is very important to understand how these particle populations vary spatially, both horizontally and vertically. Existing ground sites examine this through changes in location and elevation, and we seek to further this understanding during the SAIL campaign by collecting time-resolved vertical profiles of CCN and INPs using guest instrumentation aboard the ARM tethered balloon system (TBS). This will allow examination of spatial and temporal variability in CCN and INP at this site and will guide translation of ground measurements into conditions aloft where cloud interactions occur.

Data Plan

Please provide information on anticipated datasets generated by guest instruments and their:

• draft name and description

We plan on having six separate sites for this campaign with three instruments at each site. We propose submitting individual data products for each instrument at each site, leading to a total of 18 data products.

Our data sets will be: (draft name: description)

1. CCN CloudPuck: Cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCN) called a CloudPuck (5-min resolution) We anticipate scanning between 0.1-1% supersaturation to match ground data from AFC07079: "CCN, and INP variability in mountainous terrain”.

2. IcePuck: an ice nuclei filter sampler (1-hour or lower resolution)

• point of contact

Russell Perkins (rperkins@colorado.edu, 970-491-8273)

• date range of operation

Summer of 2022 during TBS operation periods.

• overall data size, including supplementary files (if known)

Final data set will be small, less than 50 MB.

Please note if any of these guest-instrument datasets will need to be continuously collected and provide details (e.g., frequency, plan for getting data to the ARM-Data Center).

All finalized, quality-controlled data will be uploaded no later than 6 months after the completion of TBS flights.

Further details: Both instruments will require post-processing to produce reliable data, which will be archived in the ARM Data Center within six months of the completion of the field campaign. The IcePuck collects filter samples, which need subsequent processing to acquire data. The CloudPuck does collect real-time data, but additional post-processing of raw video files is required to validate the real-time data.

Will you be following any data formatting guidelines?

Yes, we will follow the guidelines listed in https://arm.gov/policies/datapolicies/formatting-and-file-naming-protocols. Our files will be netCDF files unless ARM guidelines are updated to request a different format. Files and variables will be formatted to match other data sets using these instruments from AFC07079 and AFC010066 for ease of use.

Will you host the data on an external site in addition to submitting to the ARM Data Center?

No – data collection occurs over a relatively short window, so the final data set is expected to be completed soon after processing begins.