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APPRAISE-CLOUDS Project - Airborne Measurements

Inside the FAAM BAe146 aircraft. Operators seated by the Manchester cloud physics and aerosol rack.

Airborne measurements for the APPRAISE-CLOUDS project were carried out using the FAAM BAe146 aircraft. In total 20 flights have been carried out as part of this project with the aircraft operating from Cranfield, Exeter and Oberpffafenhofen. Details of the individual flights are sumarised in the table below and full flight information including instruments, crew, mission briefs and flight tracks can be found on the FAAM website. Many of the flights were carried out within the range of the Chilbolton radar facility, and in conjunction with ground based aerosol measurements being made at the Chilbolton site. For the APPRAISE-CLOUDS project the aircraft was equipped with a range of cloud and aerosol instruments including FSSP (cloud droplets), CPI (ice particles), 2DS (ice particles), 2DC (ice particles), 2DP (ice particles), CAPS (droplets, ice, large aerosol), AMS (aerosol chemistry), SP2 (soot aerosol), PCASP (aerosol size), SMPS (aerosol size), Filters (aerosol chemistry), CVI (cloud particle residuals), Nephalometers (aerosol scattering), PSAP (soot aerosol), Whole Air Samplers (trace gases - post flight analysis), Trace gas analysers (NOx, O3, SO2). Missions typically involved flight legs above and below cloud to characterise aerosol in the vicinity of the clouds, and flight legs within cloud to characterise cloud properties and attempt to measure cloud particle residuals. In total 110 flight hours were allocated to this project.

Typical aircraft flight track for flights over the South West of England. The Chilbolton radar facility is located approximately 20 miles north of Southampton and has a range of approx 60 miles. The aircraft would frequently fly multiple legs within the area being scanned by the radar, and on some occasions as in this case additional legs outside the range of the radar if suitable cloud conditions were present. Air space restrictions also influenced where flights could be carried out.

Cloud physics instruments mounted on beneath the wing of the aircraft.