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.
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
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)
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