Single Aircraft Integration of Remote Sensing and In Situ Sampling capability to Support Aerosol-Cloud Interaction Study

One of the grand observational challenges in aerosol-cloud-climate interaction study is to observe multiple parameters simultaneously over different scales. Although global multi-sensor satellite observations offer important data to study aerosol-cloud-climate interactions, airborne measurements are demonstrated to be critical for process-oriented studies. However, providing simultaneous measurements of aerosol, dynamics, and cloud microphysical properties is not an easy task. Through multi-year development efforts, UWKA has equipped with integrated observation capabilities for cloud dynamics and microphysics, aerosols, and environment conditions through combining lidar, radar, radiometer and in situ measurements.  Approaches were developed to retrieve droplet and ice concentrations in stratiform clouds from combined lidar-radar measurements. Dual-frequency radar measurements offer better characterization of precipitations in warm clouds.  Meanwhile, dual-Doppler measurements provide 2-D cloud scale dynamics.  While flying below cloud base, in situ measurements provide aerosols, water vapor, vertical velocity measurements to better understand aerosol activations, which could be further linked with remote sensing measurements of cloud and precipitation above. Detailed observational capabilities and examples will be presented. As a part of NSF Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities, such UWKA capabilities are available to the wide research community.