KA-20240905a

KA-20240905a#

ec_under ec_track in_cloud insitu_aerosol spiral_mindelo

Crew#

Robert Oscar David, Sorin Ghemulet, Marius Corbu

EarthCARE target scenarios

Cumulus and marine aerosol: Marine mid-level clouds (supercooled).
Mixed aerosol types: Marine and Saharan dust.
Complex multi-layer scenes: Multiple low and mid-level cloud decks and potential cirrus.

Flight summary

During the research flight on 5th September 2024, we targeted EarthCARE (orbit #1551E) and sampled in multi-layered, supercooled liquid clouds. We performed porpoising to envelope the cloud decks between 5.7 and 6.2 km altitude. After the EC leg, we flew a spiral over the Mindelo ground site (low cloud deck, aerosol layer above).

Track#

track

Flight path superimposed on the natural color image from NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 16 satellite on 5th September 2024 at 16:00 UTC. The location of the aircraft at the time of the EarthCARE overpass is shown by the orange cross.

Conditions#

During the EC leg we sampled within a complex multi-layer scene with us flying through supercooled liquid clouds (Tamb -4 to -7 °C). Over Mindelo, we spiraled above very low clouds.

Flight video#

This video shows the forward and sideward view from the King Air aircraft together with live data (basic navigation data, aerosol/cloud in-situ data) during the EC leg…

… and during the Mindelo spiral.

Events#

Time (UTC)

Comment

14:18

Takeoff Praia

15:55

EarthCARE overpass (orbit #1551E)

16:44-17:18

Spiral over Mindelo ground site

18:08

Landing Praia

Execution#

  • 14:18 UTC (13:18 LT): takeoff, all probes working

  • 15:22 UTC: at WP1, in cloud but not a lot around us, will hold in the cloud and get statistics

  • 15:55 UTC: at WP2

  • 16:09 UTC: heading to Mindelo

  • 16:44 UTC: start spiral over Mindelo

  • 17:18 UTC: spiral done

  • 17:24 UTC: HAWKEYE stop for data download

  • 17:50 UTC: descending, transect home

  • 18:08 UTC: landing

Impressions#

  • 14:20 UTC: in cloud

  • 14:22 UTC: through cloud layer, FL050

  • 14:26 UTC: Tamb 12°C TAS74m/s

  • 14:30 UTC: FL140, aerosol almost gone

  • 14:35 UTC: at FL180 some ice falling from above, in and out of cloud, thin cirrus, CIP not working well

  • 14:41 UTC: FL180, in liquid cloud @Tamb -6°C

  • 14:43 UTC: climbing to get into cloud

  • 15:27 UTC: blue screen on CAPS

  • 15:31 UTC: CAPS back on but let’s see

  • 15:40 UTC: FL180, Tamb -1°C, but Tamb -5°C at FL177, starting leg in cloud

  • 15:56 UTC: one ice crystal

  • 15:58 UTC: left cloud and we headed back to WP2 to be more in cloud

  • 16:01 UTC: the cloud is clearing, going toward lower deck

  • 16:35 UTC: catching a cloud layer on approach to Mindelo

  • 16:40 UTC: right at cloud top approaching Mindelo

  • 16:42 UTC: approaching

  • 16:44 UTC: spiral started above cloud

  • 16:48 UTC: some ice on probes

  • 17:03 UTC: start climb, we were just above the cloud layer

  • 17:05 UTC: FL054: clear, FL070: getting dirty again

  • 17:13 UTC: FL140, Tamb 4°C, getting clean again

  • 17:15 UTC: ice crystals, lots of columns, lots of ice, Tamb -3°C

  • 17:18 UTC: spiral done, lots of ice, Tamb -5°C, top of cloud is at FL210 likely estimate (T -7°C)

  • 17:19 UTC: mainly liquid now and a bit of ice, Tamb -6°C, mainly columns

  • 17:50 UTC: descending, transect home we were just below cloud, in and out sometimes

Instrument status & quicklooks#

Instrument

Operational

Comment

CAS-DPOL

✅

None

CIP

✅

Check, some issues

LWC Hotwire

❌

None

FCDP

✅

None

2D-S

✅

None

CPI

✅

None

Gopros

✅

None

EarthCARE MSI image (RGR-1C:AF) with EarthCARE ground track (red) and King Air flight track (yellow).

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