Evaluation of Liquid Water Content Measurements and Survey of Phase Partitioning in Marine Boundary Layer, Cold-Air Outbreak Clouds during CAESAR

The Cold-Air outbreak Experiment in the Sub-Arctic Region (CAESAR) field campaign was conducted over the far North Atlantic region between Scandinavia, Greenland, and the southern extent of the arctic ice from late February through early April of 2024. One of the goals of CAESAR is to better understand the role of microphysical processes in controlling the production of ice and the evolution of hydrometeors in Cold-Air Outbreaks (CAOs) cloud systems. The CAESAR campaign produced ten research flights using the NSF/NCAR C-130 atmospheric research aircraft, providing an extensive set of in-situ cloud measurements through the vertical extent of CAO clouds.

In this study we present preliminary analysis evaluating the performance of a Nevzorov Liquid and Total Water Content (LWC/TWC) probe based on comparisons of measurements with several other in situ instruments mounted on the C130. Comparisons are segregated by several different parameters such as, but not limited to, flight number, temperature, and mean droplet diameter. Additionally, the Nevzorov sensors, combined with the larger suite of in situ cloud microphysical measurements, are used to estimate phase partitioning of condensed water mass. The phase partitioning is also segregated by cloud characteristics and represents an initial investigation into factors that may control ice production in CAO clouds.