CELLO

CELLO#

Cloud and EarthCARE caL/vaL Observations

Lead PIs: Robert O. David, Tim Carlsen, Trude Storelvmo (University of Oslo, Norway), Denisa-Elena Moaca, Sorin Vajaiac (INCAS, Bucharest, Romania)

CELLO is a Norwegian initiative that uses the Romanian INCAS King Air research aircraft to perform calibration and validation (cal/val) flights to quantify the quality of ESA’s/JAXA’s EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Explorer) satellite. EarthCARE (expected launch date: May 2024) offers the unique and powerful collocation of an atmospheric lidar, cloud profiling radar, multi-spectral imager and broadband radiometer to provide unprecedented data sets to advance our understanding of the role of clouds in the climate system. To fulfill EarthCARE’s mission objectives, cal/val efforts are of paramount importance to characterize and quality-check its cloud products.

The King Air aircraft is equipped with in-situ cloud probes enabling us to observe cloud droplets and ice crystals over a wide range of sizes. Our aim is to characterize the microphysical properties of clouds at different stages of convection around Cape Verde during multiple EarthCARE overpasses in August and September 2024. Joining the international efforts within the ORCESTRA consortium will provide a unique observational setup with two in-situ aircraft (INCAS King Air, French SAFIRE ATR-42), one remote sensing aircraft (German HALO), and a research vessel (German METEOR). We aim to capitalize from the coordination of the different platforms to increase the spatial and temporal representativeness of the cal/val observations during EarthCARE overpasses.