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specMACS on EUREC4A campaign

summary of research flights

datenamereportremarks
2020-01-18 HALO-0118
  • Transfer from EDMO to LEST
2020-01-19 HALO-0119 report
  • Transfer from LEST to TBPB
2020-01-22 HALO-0122 report
  • Basic pattern of circles, spur towards NTAS removed in favour of calibration maneuvers.
  • Square pattern for BACCARDI calibration at FL410 (above Cirrus), with return leg at FL310 (below Cirrus).
  • Very moist and deep trade-wind layer, convection extending to 4 km associated with a Fish pattern in the SW-edge of the circle.
  • Descending Cirrus (9-13.5km) coming from West and South of the circle.
  • Away from the southwest edge of the track the air was almost entirely cloud free.
2020-01-24 HALO-0124 report
  • Circle pattern, in the end excursion towards NTAS.
  • Deeper convection in the SE circle, spreading cold pools and stratiform clouds.
2020-01-26 HALO-0126 report
  • Super curtain with Twin Otter and ATR after takeoff.
  • Four coordinated straight legs over Meteor.
  • Cirrus clouds in 14-17 km present for almost full flight.
2020-01-28 HALO-0128 report
  • Rather long excursion towards NTAS with radar calibration maneuver.
  • Sugar cloud patterns within the circle.
2020-01-30 HALO-0130 report
  • Short flight duration of about 3 hours and 48 minutes.
  • Joint race track pattern with ATR.
  • GPM satellite underpass.
  • Straight leg above saharan dust layer.
2020-01-31 HALO-0131 report
  • Persistent shallow dust layer, more intense towards the south, accompanied there by shallow cumuli.
  • 1st set of circles: Fading flower.
  • 2nd set of circles: Malnourished spine of a fish.
  • Excursion: Partly successful with the 10deg bank (or 540deg heading) manoeuvre.
  • The Flo-manoeuvre (wiggle) failed as the radar stopped right before it.
2020-02-02 HALO-0202 report
  • Flying seven standard circle patterns (six circles with dropsondes).
  • Flying the novel clover pattern as excursion. Convection and clouds were organized as flowers moving mostly eastwards with a slight component to the North.
  • Essentially, we tracked three to four flowers.
2020-02-05 HALO-0205 report
  • Two standard 3.5 circle patterns. In between an excursion leg to NTAS and a leg with satellite (Terra/MISR ) overpass.
  • At the beginning mostly flower pattern. Changed to gravel/sugar later on.
  • Higher cloud fraction than on previous days.
  • Well developed clouds with showers in some of them.
2020-02-07 HALO-0207 report
  • Two standard circle patterns with an excursion to NTAS plus radar calibration manoveur.
  • 1st set of circles dominated by flower pattern with stratiform layers at ~2km.
  • Many large cold pools with remnants of stratiform clouds in the middle.
  • 2nd set of circles dominated by sugar/gravel pattern.
2020-02-09 HALO-0209 report
  • Two standard circle sets with an excursion to NTAS.
  • Radar calibration maneuver (20-deg-wiggles and 10-deg-circle) at NTAS.
  • Flyovers over the Ron Brown towards and backwards from NTAS.
  • At the 1st Ron Brown flyover a dropsonde was launched.
  • Mostly shallow sugar clouds during the flight.
  • Two cold pools entered the circle during the 2nd circle set.
2020-02-11 HALO-0211 report
  • Standard circle pattern with 5 complete circles.
  • GPM-satellite overpass on the way back from NTAS (20:27 UTC).
  • Radar-calibration maneuver around NTAS (20-deg-wiggles and 10-deg-circle).
  • An additional sonde was launched near NTAS after the calibration maneuver.
  • Western circle area was dominated by convection with strong precipitation signals and stratocumulus on top.
  • Rest of circle mostly occupied by small sugar cumuli.
  • The excursion legs were characterized by larger flower-like cloud clusters growing on a sugar cloud field.
2020-02-13 HALO-0213 report
  • Two standard circle sets (each 3 circles) with excursion to NTAS in between.
  • Radar calibration maneuver (20deg wiggle) flown at NTAS location.
  • At the beginning of the flight the circle area was dominated by a flower cloud pattern with stratiform layers at ~2km.
  • During the flight the flower pattern collapsed slowly into a fish pattern.
  • During the whole flight precipitating cells were observed.
  • On the way to NTAS a few cold pools were observed with shallow sugar-type convection.
2020-02-15 HALO-0215 report
  • First two circles near Barbados. Excursion to NTAS. Third circle at NTAS location.Last three circles again near Barbados.
  • Fewer dropsondes launched than usual because of the availibility at this stage of the campaign.
  • **Only one dropsonde during circle 5!**
  • Thick and persistent altostratus layer (top at ~9km) covering the area from Barbados to NTAS.
  • Beneath the altostratus layer shallow clouds and stratiform layers were present.
  • Flight went above and below the altostratus layer.
  • **See flight-report for more information.**
2020-02-18 HALO-0218
  • Transfer from TBPB to EDMO

specMACS products

Products derived from the specMACS data captured during EUREC4A campaign can be downloaded here.

the specMACS instrument

specMACS is a hyperspectral imager, capturing one image line at a time. It is sensitive in the range of approx. 400nm to 2500nm and has a field of view of approximately 35°. During EUREC4A it is mounted on the HALO aircraft facing downwards and is accompanied by a 2D RGB camera an an opening angle of 70°. More information can be found in Ewald et al. (2016).

acknowledgements

This site uses information from the EUREC4A flight metadata repository.

more information

If you have any questions or requests, please contact tobias.koelling@physik.uni-muenchen.de.