NAMMA LARGE

Flight Team: Winstead, Anderson, Diskin (DLH), Podolske (Cobalt)

Instruments: All instruments worked well. However, software problems caused the data acquisition system to crash at frequent intervals, which kept us on our toes during the flight.

Observations: Satellite images recorded just prior to takeoff showed enhanced aerosol optical depths over the Atlantic just north of Sal, Cape Verde, indicating the presence of Saharan dust. The transit flight plan was thus modified to include a constant altitude flight leg within the layer to characterize its composition using in situ sensors. On the leg and an associated vertical sounding, we found that the dust layer resided between 5 and 15 kft and that it exhibited the highest particle loadings around 7.5 kft altitude. Scattering coefficients peaked near 200 Mm-1 in the layer, but exhibited substantial horizontal and vertical variability. Surprisingly, relative humidities measured by DLH were correlated with scattering and varied between 60 and 70% within the thickest part of the layer.

Flight Team: Winstead, Anderson, Diskin (DLH), Podolske (Cobalt), Provencal (Cobalt)

Instruments: All instruments worked well except the total scattering Radiance Research nephelometer, which still exhibited a leak or, perhaps, electronic problem. We continued to have problems with the 50 lpm Alicat flow controllers on the TSI neph and bypass flow loop. We ended up plumbing around the controllers during flight, then replaced their automated valves with small manual gate valves, keeping the flow measuring capability of the two devices.

Observations: An intense haze layer of was evident on climb out. We suspect this came from fires burning in the southwest U.S. The downsounding over Lake Superior also showed evidence of pollution in a layer at 9 kft. The layer exhibited peak (550 nm) scattering coefficients of 100 Mm-1, CO values of ~150 ppb, single scattering albedo ~0.9 and, according to lidar imagery, looked to be horizontally extensive.

Flight Team:  Thornhill, Winstead, Anderson, Diskin (DLH), Podolske (Cobalt), Provencal (Cobalt)

Instruments: We are flying the following instruments: A TSI 3025 CN counter and two TSI 3010 CN counters, one with a heater on the inlet to yield “ultrafine”, “cold” and “hot” aerosol number densities; a scanning mobility particle sizer for sizing 0.01 to 0.3 um diameter aerosols; a passive cavity aerosol spectrometer (PCASP) for the 0.1 to 3 um size range; a ultrahigh-sensitivity aerosol spectrometer probe (UHSAS) for the 0.055 to 1.0 um size range; a MetOne optical particle counter (OPC) for the 0.3 to 10 um range; a TSI Aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) for 0.8 to 20 um particles; a TSI 3-wavelength nephelometer and two Radiance Research single wavelength nephelometers to determine total and submicron aerosol scattering coefficients; two 3-wavelength Radiance Research Particle Soot Absorption Photometers (PSAPs) to measure total and submicron aerosol absorption  coefficients; and Melody Avery’s TECO 49C ozone monitor for 10 s averages of O3 mixing ratio.  In addition, Glenn and Jim are flying their Diode Laser Hygrometer and “Cobalt”, an new instrument that uses the off-axis integrated cavity output spectrometer technique to provide fast-response measurements of CO mixing ratio.  During the brief test flight, all instruments worked well except one RR neph, which appeared to have a leak, and the PCASP, which had an alignment problem.   We had some problems with the flow controllers on the TSI nephelometer and  bypass flow loop—couldn’t get them to open at low pressure.   New UHSAS system worked well, but we had some computer problems which required us to reboot the unit periodically.

Observations:  Most of the brief flight was spent monitoring the performance of instruments and varying flow parameters to evaluate the efficacy of our plumbing system. However we did record elevated tracer concentrations in a plume near 10 kft that apparently arose from fires located in the southwest.

Date of Flight: 07/15/2006

Instrument Status: Red, Yellow, Green

Quicklook(s): Sample Quicklook

Instrument Performance:

How did the instrument perform during the flight?

Science Observations:

A brief report on anything interesting.

Date: 07/15/2006
Time: 00:00 (UTC)
Current Status:

A brief report on the status of the instrument at the current time.