The use of aircraft for meteorological research in the United Kingdom

McBeath, Kirsty

doi:10.1002/met.1448

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Mass concentrations of refractory black carbon (rBC) were obtained using the Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2, Droplet Measurement Technologies, USA; Baumgardner et al, 2004;Stephens et al, 2003). The operation on board the BAe-146 is outlined by McMeeking et al (2010), and the calibrations and post-processing undertaken for this work are described by Allan et al (2014). Reported mass loadings have a measurement uncertainty of approximately 30 % (Schwarz et al, 2008;Shiraiwa et al, 2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

et al. 2019

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Abstract. We examine processes driving the vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution following an integrated analysis of over 200 pollutant and meteorological profiles measured in situ during the South AMerican Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) field experiment. This study will aid future work examining the impact of biomass burning on weather, climate and air quality. During the dry season there were significant contrasts in the composition and vertical distribution of haze between western and eastern regions of tropical South America. Owing to an active or residual convective mixing layer, the aerosol abundance was similar from the surface to ∼1.5 km in the west and ∼3 km in the east. Black carbon mass loadings were double as much in the east (1.7 µg m−3) than the west (0.85 µg m−3), but aerosol scattering coefficients at 550 nm were similar (∼120 Mm−1), as too were CO near-surface concentrations (310–340 ppb). We attribute these contrasts to the more flaming combustion of Cerrado fires in the east and more smouldering combustion of deforestation and pasture fires in the west. Horizontal wind shear was important in inhibiting mixed layer growth and plume rise, in addition to advecting pollutants from the Cerrado regions into the remote tropical forest of central Amazonia. Thin layers above the mixing layer indicate the roles of both plume injection and shallow moist convection in delivering pollution to the lower free troposphere. However, detrainment of large smoke plumes into the upper free troposphere was very infrequently observed. Our results reiterate that thermodynamics control the pollutant vertical distribution and thus point to the need for correct model representation so that the spatial distribution and vertical structure of biomass burning smoke is captured. We observed an increase of aerosol abundance relative to CO with altitude both in the background haze and plume enhancement ratios. It is unlikely associated with thermodynamic partitioning, aerosol deposition or local non-fire sources. We speculate it may be linked to long-range transport from West Africa or fire combustion efficiency coupled to plume injection height. Further enquiry is required to explain the phenomenon and explore impacts on regional climate and air quality.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

et al. 2019

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“…Flights were conducted by the UK BAe-146 research aircraft operated by FAAM (Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements). The BAe-146 flew with a comprehensive instrumentation suite, capable of measuring aerosols, dynamics, cloud physics, chemical tracers and meteorological fields (McBeath, 2014). Simultaneously, a fully instrumented ground site was operational in Porto Velho, the results from which are described in Brito et al (2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

Darbyshire¹,

Morgan²,

Allan³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. To reduce the uncertainties in processes driving the vertical distribution of biomass burning pollutants, and thus impacts on regional weather and climate, we present an integrated analysis of vertical profiles of pollutants and meteorological parameters measured on flights during the 2012 South American Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) field experiment. During the dry season there were significant contrasts in the composition and vertical distribution of haze between western and eastern regions of tropical South America. Owing to an active or residual convective mixing layer, the aerosol burden was similar from the surface to ~&#8201;1.5&#8201;km in the west and ~&#8201;3&#8201;km in the east. Black carbon mass loadings were double in the east (1.7&#8201;&#181;g&#8201;cm&#8722;3) than west (0.85&#8201;&#181;g&#8201;cm&#8722;3) but aerosol scattering coefficients at 550&#8201;nm were similar (~&#8201;120&#8201;Mm&#8722;1), as too were CO surface concentrations (310&#8211;340&#8201;ppb). We attribute these contrasts to the more flaming combustion of Cerrado fires in the east and more smouldering combustion of deforestation and pasture fires in the west. Horizontal wind shear was important in inhibiting mixed layer growth and plume rise, in addition to advecting pollutants from the Cerrado regions into the remote tropical forest of central Amazonia. Optically thin layers above the mixing layer indicates roles for both plume injection and shallow moist convection in delivering pollution to the lower free troposphere. However, detrainment of large smoke plumes into the upper free troposphere was very infrequently observed. Our results reiterate that thermodynamics control the pollutant vertical distribution and thus point to the need for correct model representation so the spatial distribution and vertical structure of biomass burning smoke is captured. Our observations of relatively large concentrations of aerosol aloft and of CO near surface suggest that there is a greater contribution of pollutants from more complete combustion with altitude. Release of appropriate emissions from the initial more flaming and later residual smouldering phases of a fire at appropriate altitudes may be especially important to ensure models can accurately predict aerosol-radiation, aerosol-cloud and air quality impacts.

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“…Examples include monitoring storm and typhoon dynamics, weather modification experiments, exploration of cloud microphysics, solar and terrestrial radiation, monitoring of air quality and satellite validation (Bushnell et al, 1973; Goyer et al, 1966; Herman, 1977; Knollenberg, 1970; McCormick et al, 1979; Reynolds et al, 1975). Moreover, the expansion of airborne observations meant that these have become a crucial component of modern atmospheric observations (McBeath, 2014). Several airborne observation campaigns have occurred in and around the Korean peninsula.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of the KMA/NIMS Atmospheric Research Aircraft (NARA) and its data archive: Annual airborne observations over the Korean peninsula

Kim

Goo

Jung

et al. 2022

Geoscience Data Journal

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This study describes the Korea Meteorological Administration/National Institute of Meteorological Sciences (KMA/NIMS) Atmospheric Research Aircraft (NARA) and its observational data archive. NARA has been performing annual observation flights, which are aimed at reducing the uncertainty of atmospheric observations in the observation data gap area around the Korean peninsula, since January 2018. An online system has also been constructed to provide data management, transmission, quality control and simple visualization. The mission strategy of NARA is subdivided into four individual units, namely observations of severe weather (SW), climate monitoring (CM), environmental monitoring (EM) and cloud physics and weather modification experiments (CP). As of December 2020, NARA has been launched operationally for 325 flights (corresponding to 9.02 flights per month), typically over the West Sea, mid‐inland areas (34.4% and 25.4%, respectively), and below an altitude of 3 km (51.9%). Results of intercomparison tests confirmed that NARA measurements have reasonable offsets (<0.9%) to each other in terms of pressure and temperature. Moreover, the monthly average temperature profile in the East Sea area showed a seasonal variation was detected in monthly variation. From these results, it is evident that NARA data will contribute significantly to enhancing the level of scientific understanding of atmospheric observations and the applications (i.e. long‐term study) thereof as the amount of data accumulated increases.

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The use of aircraft for meteorological research in the United Kingdom

Cited by 4 publications

References 41 publications

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

Overview of the KMA/NIMS Atmospheric Research Aircraft (NARA) and its data archive: Annual airborne observations over the Korean peninsula

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