SAILNP+

SAIL additional INP processing

5 June 2024 - 31 August 2026

Lead Scientist: Russell Perkins

Observatory: OSC

This campaign will perform additional analysis on physical samples collected through tethered balloon system (TBS) deployments and the DOE ice nucleating particles (INP) mentor program during the SAIL campaign. The work through this campaign is performed under the DOE-funded project DE-SC0024202 titled "Comprehensive Characterization of the Seasonal Cycles of Ice Nucleating Particles for Studies of Precipitation Drivers in SAIL". This project centers on characterizing cloud-relevant particle concentrations, sources, and distributions during the SAIL campaign, which took place near Crested Butte, Colorado, in 2022 and 2023. The specific goals of this project are:

(1) Quantify the annual cycle of INP concentrations (as functions of temperature) by source type and in the context of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and total aerosol populations in the SAIL environment, with a special focus on measuring biological particles and biological INPs, and episodes of biomass burning and dust transport influences.

(2) Distinguish and quantify the contributions of cloud seeding and snowmaking activities to the observed INPs in winter, especially artificial INPs active at small supercooling.

(3) Determine vertical profiles of total aerosols, CCN, and INPs, to link surface-based observations to those most relevant at cloud base and therefore most relevant to cloud microphysical evolution.

(4) Synthesize data into new parameterizations describing INP populations and their relationships to ambient aerosols so that the results can be applied to any region, and to transfer these descriptions to collaborators who will incorporate them into numerical models for study of the corresponding aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions.