We are just finishing up an intensive observation campaign named “Arctic Clouds, Aerosols, and Radiation Experiment 2017 (Arctic-CARE 2017)” in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. We have started packing of our instruments this week.
In this post, I’ll briefly introduce an example of our research activities in the Arctic-CARE 2017. It is well known that mixed-phase clouds, consisting of both ice crystals and supercooled water droplets, occur frequently during all seasons in the lower troposphere of the Arctic, especially over the Svalbard region. One of our main focuses is on understanding the roles of aerosols as ice nucleating particles (INPs) in Arctic mixed-phase clouds.
During this campaign, we have collected ambient aerosol particles on filters at the Zeppelin station (474 m a.s.l.) and the Gruvebadet station (bottom of Mt. Zeppelin) in Ny-Ålesund. We plan to evaluate the ice nucleating activity of the collected particles under mixed-phase cloud conditions using our original cold-stage-based instrument CRAFT (Cryogenic Refrigerator Applied to Freezing Test). We have also tried direct sampling of ice crystals in Arctic mixed-phase clouds using a PCVI (Pumped Counterflow Virtual Impactor) at the Zeppelin station in collaboration with Dr. Naruki Hiranuma and his student Maria Pantazi of the West Texas A&M University. They plan to analyze detailed characteristics of residual particles (proxy for INPs) in the ice crystals.
To be honest, I must say that not everything is as we originally intended, because of heavy snow, strong wind, cold temperatures and other unforeseen circumstances. However, I’m quite sure that we could perform very challenging measurements of aerosols and clouds and obtain many valuable data during this campaign. We would like to thank the staffs of the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and the members of the Italian, French and Korean teams for their very helpful supports and collaborative activities.
*This blog post was written on March 30, 2017.
Yutaka Tobo (NIPR / A member of Theme 3)
Arctic-CARE members and Italian colleagues (at the Italian station)
Gruvebadet station and Mt. Zeppelin
Sequential aerosol sampler for INP measurements (white box) and PCVI (instrument with black triangle head) installed on the roof of the Zeppelin station
Replacement of grids for cloud sampling
