cops_apar: contains data from Enviscope Parternavia Aircraft during COPS Campaign

Experiment
airborneobservational data
Summary
The Partenavia aircraft flight mission is based on the accepted EUFAR (European Fleet for Aircraft Research) proposal OMAC (Observation Methodologies of the First Indirect Aerosol Effect in Water Clouds) for education and training, which is available at http://www.eufar.net (research projects, OMAC). The main purpose of this experiment is related to microphysical measurements within stratiform low level water clouds simultaneous to ground-based remote sensing observations.
The aircraft Partenavia is a small twin engine aircraft (length: 9.55 m; height: 3.40 m; wingspan: 12.00 m) with full IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) equipment and especially applicable for water cloud microphysical targets within all the special devices. Additionally low cruise speeds (min speed: 32 m/s, max speed: 96 m/s, usual speed during transit flights: 77 m/s) are advantageous in order to achieve a better spatial data resolution in close vicinity to the ground base stations. See http://www.enviscope.de, search for Airborne platform, Partenavia. The instrumentation of the aircraft covers water cloud microphysical targets (cloud liquid water content, cloud water droplet size, cloud water droplet concentration) as well as standard avionic and meteorological parameters (time, altitude, geo-position, pressure, temperature, humidity, relative/absolute humidity, dew point, water vapor, true air speed, relative wind, wind direction).
In the framework of COPS this experiment is divided into the category Stratus-Cloud-Physics of the COPS aircraft missions (http://www.cops2007.de/, search for general information) and altogether four different flight missions have been operated during SOP-1a, 2 to 4 (Special Observations Periods).
Project
COPS (Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study)
Location(s)
COPS region (CDOM)
Spatial Coverage
Longitude 6 to 11 Latitude 47 to 50
Temporal Coverage
2007-06-01 to 2007-08-31 (calendrical)
Use constraints
For scientific use only. No commercial use allowed. Please be aware of the common COPS/GOP/D-PHASE data policy (http://cops.wdc-climate.de/)
Data Catalog
World Data Center for Climate
Size
400.44 KiB (410049 Byte)
Format
netCDF.gz
Status
in work
Creation Date
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Description
Additionally to the continuous ground-based observations special requirements of lidar and cloud radar measurements could be coordinated at supersite A, H and M. During the flight period of SOP-2 high-resolution raw data measurements of the cloud radar of Karlsruhe (MIRA) at supersite H could be arranged. The additional lidar measurements at all of the supersites A, H and M were strongly depending on the weather situation (rain and cloud-base at Hornisgrinde-level) at each flight. A complete overview of the facility status of the ground-based measurements, the operations plan of the day, the science director summary and the weather summary during SOP-1a, 2 to 4 are available at (http://www.cops2007.de/, search for missions).
Description
The predefined flight pattern was a triangle, which covered the area of the Rhine-valley, Hornisgrinde and Murg-valley, that several overpasses of the supersites A, H and M could be performed. During IFR operations the minimum flight level was restricted to FL 60 by air traffic control and the maximum by the height level of the zero degree isotherm.
Mainly all flight missions were confirmed by nowcasting, because of encountered difficulties in the correct forecast of stable stratus cloud layers in the specific area. All the flight periods were in the very early morning and limited by initiation of convection.
Depending on the present cloud situation and the alteration of the weather situation in the morning (heating effect) the minimum duration was 1:17h and the maximum 2:46h.
Therefore alternative flight patterns according to the triangle have been flown during SOP-2 to 4 depending on the cloud distribution and development. The decision of the changed pattern has been made during the flights and could be coordinated by the French (Strasbourg) and German (Baden-airpark) air traffic control.
During SOP-1a and 3 flight level legs at around 1800 to 2000m have been performed. In the flight missions during SOP-2 and 4 also slant profile measurements (up to 3700m) have been operated to get vertical cloud information. Especially during the second flight (SOP-2) this results in mixed-phased measurements (ice crystals and water droplets) in the upper part of the cloud layer. In all other flights only water droplets (from small droplets, drizzle to heavy rain) are observed. First provided quicklooks of the aircraft in-situ microphysical and meteorological measurements demonstrate consistency and reasonability in relation to the cloud situation at each flight.
Contact typePersonORCIDOrganization
Investigator
Christine Brandau
-
Delft University of Technology

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[1] DOI Wulfmeyer, V.; Flamant, C.; Behrendt, A.; Blyth, A.; Brown, A.; Dorninger, M.; Illingworth, A.; Mascart, P.; Montani, A.; Weckwerth, T. (2011). Advances in the understanding of convective processes and precipitation over low-mountain regions through the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS). doi:10.1002/qj.799
[2] DOI Wulfmeyer, V.; Flamant, C.; Behrendt, A.; Blyth, A.; Brown, A.; Dorninger, M.; Illingworth, A.; Mascart, P.; Montani, A.; Weckwerth, T (Eds.). (2011). Special Issue: Advances in the understanding of convective processes and precipitation over low-mountain regions through the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS). doi:10.1002/qj.v137.1s

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Parent project(s)

Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study

[Entry acronym: cops_apar] [Entry id: 2167008]