ASDC | ACTIVATE_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_KingAir_Data

ACTIVATE Level 2

Entry Title: ACTIVATE King Air Aerosol and Cloud Remotely Sensed Data

Entry ID: ACTIVATE_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_KingAir_Data_1

Aerosols Clouds

Description

ACTIVATE_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_KingAir_Data is the aerosol and cloud data collected onboard the B-200 King Air aircraft via remote sensing instrumentation during the ACTIVATE project. ACTIVATE was a 5-year NASA Earth-Venture Sub-Orbital (EVS-3) field campaign. Marine boundary layer clouds play a critical role in Earth’s energy balance and water cycle. These clouds cover more than 45% of the ocean surface and exert a net cooling effect. The Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) project was a five-year project that provides important globally-relevant data about changes in marine boundary layer cloud systems, atmospheric aerosols and multiple feedbacks that warm or cool the climate. ACTIVATE studied the atmosphere over the western North Atlantic and sampled its broad range of aerosol, cloud and meteorological conditions using two aircraft, the UC-12 King Air and HU-25 Falcon. The UC-12 King Air was primarily used for remote sensing measurements while the HU-25 Falcon will contain a comprehensive instrument payload for detailed in-situ measurements of aerosol, cloud properties, and atmospheric state. A few trace gas measurements were also onboard the HU-25 Falcon for the measurements of pollution traces, which will contribute to airmass classification analysis. A total of 150 coordinated flights over the western North Atlantic occurred through 6 deployments from 2020-2022. The ACTIVATE science observing strategy intensively targets the shallow cumulus cloud regime and aims to collect sufficient statistics over a broad range of aerosol and weather conditions which enables robust characterization of aerosol-cloud-meteorology interactions. This strategy was implemented by two nominal flight patterns: Statistical Survey and Process Study. The statistical survey pattern involves close coordination between the remote sensing and in-situ aircraft to conduct near coincident sampling at and below cloud base as well as above and within cloud top. The process study pattern involves extensive vertical profiling to characterize the target cloud and surrounding aerosol and meteorological conditions.

Marine boundary layer clouds play a critical role in Earth’s energy balance and water cycle. These clouds cover more than 45% of the ocean surface and exert a net cooling effect. The Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) project is a five-year project (January 2019-December 2023) that will provide important globally-relevant data about changes in marine boundary layer cloud systems, atmospheric aerosols and multiple feedbacks that warm or cool the climate. ACTIVATE studies the atmosphere over the western North Atlantic and samples its broad range of aerosol, cloud and meteorological conditions using two aircraft, the UC-12 King Air and HU-25 Falcon. The UC-12 King Air will primarily be used for remote sensing measurements while the HU-25 Falcon will contain a comprehensive instrument payload for detailed in-situ measurements of aerosol, cloud properties, and atmospheric state. A few trace gas measurements will also be onboard the HU-25 Falcon for the measurements of pollution traces, which will contribute to airmass classification analysis. A total of 150 coordinated flights over the western North Atlantic are planned through 6 deployments from 2020-2022. The ACTIVATE science observing strategy intensively targets the shallow cumulus cloud regime and aims to collect sufficient statistics over a broad range of aerosol and weather conditions which enables robust characterization of aerosol-cloud-meteorology interactions. This strategy is implemented by two nominal flight patterns: Statistical Survey and Process Study. The statistical survey pattern involves close coordination between the remote sensing and in-situ aircraft to conduct near coincident sampling at and below cloud base as well as above and within cloud top. The process study pattern involves extensive vertical profiling to characterize the target cloud and surrounding aerosol and meteorological conditions.

DOI

10.5067/ASDC/ACTIVATE_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_KingAir_Data_1

Citation Styles for this Dataset

Resources and Documentation

Earthdata Forum

PROJECT HOME PAGE

ACTIVATE Project Home Page

ACTIVATE NASA LaRC Airborne Science Data for Atmospheric Composition Project Home Page

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

DATA CITATION POLICY

Creative Commons License
How to cite ASDC data

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

ACTIVATE StoryMap
ACTIVATE Support Documentation Page

MICRO ARTICLE

ASDC Microarticle “Advancing Aerosol-Cloud-Meteorology Knowledge through ACTIVATE”

PUBLICATIONS

Nasa.gov Feature “ACTIVATE Makes a Careful Return to Flight”

Nasa.gov Feature “NASA Embarks on Five U.S. Expeditions Targeting Air, Land, and Sea”

Nasa.gov Feature “Probing the Hazy Mysteries of Marine Clouds”

Spatially coordinated airborne data and complementary products for aerosol, gas, cloud, and meteorological studies: the NASA ACTIVATE dataset

From GCMD Science Keywords:

AEROSOLS
CLOUDS
AEROSOL BACKSCATTER
AEROSOL PARTICLE PROPERTIES
AEROSOL EXTINCTION
AEROSOL FORWARD SCATTER
ANGSTROM EXPONENT > AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS
AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS

Data Distribution

File Format(s):

HDF5, ICARTT

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Spatial Information

Spatial Coverage: (S: 25, N: 50), (W: -85, E: -58.5)
Spatial Coverage Type: Horizontal Vertical
Coordinate System: Cartesian
Granule Spatial Representation: Cartesian

Locations

NORTH AMERICA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ATLANTIC OCEAN NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN BERMUDA TROPOSPHERE ANTARCTICA WESTERN HEMISPHERE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

Temporal Information

Temporal Coverage: 2020-02-10 - 2022-06-30

Platforms

Propeller

King Air

Beechcraft King Air

HSRL-2

RSP

Research Scanning Polarimeter

Metadata Dates

Created on 2020-11-03

Last updated on 2024-04-23