Our research aircraft are essentially "flying laboratories". For each field project a specialized suite of instruments are uploaded to the aircraft to meet the research needs of the study. SOCRATES will quantify how clouds, aerosols, air-sea exchanges interact over the Southern Ocean, therefore the payload consists of a suite of instruments specific to this research project including radar, lidar, radiometers, cloud droplet probes, and dropsondes.
|
Instrument |
Instrument |
Measurement |
|
Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (Dropsonde System) |
High resolution vertical profiles of ambient temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and wind direction; dropsondes are ejected out of the back right side of the aircraft through a small pressurized port |
Left Wing Stores
|
Instrument |
Instrument |
Measurement |
| 2DS | Two-Dimensional Stereo probe |
Two-dimensional images of cloud and precipitation particles from 10-1280 µm |
|
Ballast |
-- |
A non-operational pod that mirrors the weight and aerodynamics properties of the opposite side wing store |
|
All Weather Wind Gust Pod |
3-D wind in all conditions and provides aircraft position, attitude, ground speed, aircraft attack angle (AKRD), Solid State Recording Device (SSRD), and aircraft true air speed (TASX) |
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King (CSIRO) Liquid Water Sensor |
Cloud liquid water content |
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Particle Habit Imager and Polar Nephelometer |
Simultaneously images a cloud particle and measures its angular scattering phase function |
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Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer |
Concentration and size distribution of aerosol particles having diameters from 0.060 --1.0 µm |
Right Wing Stores
|
Instrument |
Instrument |
Measurement |
|
Two-Dimensional Optical Array Cloud Probe |
Two-dimensional images of hydrometeors from 25-1560 µm |
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Cloud Droplet Probe |
Cloud droplet size distribution and various measurements derived from that size distribution from 1-50 µm |
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University of Colorado Closed-path Laser Hygrometer, v2 |
“Total water”, the sum of water vapor and particulate water, water vapor resulting from the evaporation of cloud particles |
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Forward Camera |
Provides imagery of the scene ahead of aircraft. Image resolution is 1024x768, with a 62° (horizontal) x 48° (vertical) field of view |
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| HIAPER Cloud Radar | Radar W-band reflectivity factor and radial velocity of hydrometeors | |
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Precipitation Imaging Probe |
Quantity and images of precipitation sized particles from 100 microns to 6.4 mm in size |
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| Rosemount Icing Detector | Presence of supercooled water; also a rough measurement of the quantity |
Top Instrumentation
|
Instrument |
Instrument |
Measurement |
| Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter | Spectrum of cloud condensation nuclei concentration | |
|
Condensation Nucleus Counter |
Total ambient concentration of aerosol particles larger than the threshold size for the instrument, typically about 11 nm diameter (6 nm for the water-based counter); dependent on flight conditions |
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Infrared radiometer |
Infrared radiation |
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Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser Hygrometer |
Water vapor concentration and related derived values (mixing ratio, dew point, etc.) |
Bottom Instrumentation
|
Instrument |
Instrument |
Measurement |
| Continuous Flow Diffusion Chambers | Particle size distribution | |
|
Counterflow Virtual Impactor |
Cloud particle concentration, condensate mass, water vapor (for isotopic analysis) and aerosol particle residuals |
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Giant Nuclei Impactor |
Giant aerosol particles |
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HSRL (Viewport) |
High Spectral Resolution Lidar |
Back scatter cross section, extinction and depolarization properties of atmospheric aerosols and clouds |
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Broadband Radiometers |
Infrared (IR) and Visiible spectrum |
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Radiometric Surface Temperature |
Terrestrial radiation |
