The study of arctic clouds was one of primary goals for the FIRE Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE.ACE). Another goal was validation of ground based measurements deployed on the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) ice station. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130 aircraft was deployed during May (Phase I) and July (Phase II) of 1998 to support the efforts of the SHEBA experiment. The C-130 suite of instruments included numerous cloud microphysical instruments, including the new cloud particle imager (CPI).
During Phase I of FIRE.ACE, eight flights were conducted over the SHEBA site. The cloud radar and cloud lidar were operational during all eight flights. The NCAR cloud microphysics package was operational for seven flights and the cloud particle imager worked for all eight. Six flights were in cloudy air.
The polarized cloud lidar indicated that during the first four flights the boundary layer clouds were mixed phase. Initial inspection of the CPI data support these findings. A detailed comparison of particle phase determined from in situ measurements by the CPI with measurements from the lidar will be presented in this paper. Also, cloud radar measurements will be integrated into the validation by using it to define cloud boundaries.