THINICE: a field campaign dedicated to studying interactions between Arctic cyclones, clouds and sea ice

• Main Authors: Riviere, G., Delanoe, J., Doyle, J., Jourdan, O., Methven, J.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Rasta; Svalbard; Antarc*; British Antarctic Survey; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5017958

THINICE is an international airborne field campaign that occurred in Svalbard in August 2022 co-organized by French, British and US colleagues. It was dedicated to studying the dynamics of Arctic cyclones (ACs), moist intrusions, tropopause polar vortices (TPVs), their interactions with cloud microphysics, sea surface and sea ice. Two instrumented research aircraft were deployed: the ATR42 aircraft operated by SAFIRE, the French facility for airborne research, and the Twin Otter aircraft operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The objectives of the ATR42 flights were to observe the structure and evolution of Arctic cyclones over the whole tropospheric column with a focus on mixed phase clouds within Arctic cyclones. The objectives of the Twin Otter flights were more on boundary-layer processes by measuring turbulent fluxes, surface heat fluxes and sea-ice surface elevation. After providing an overview of the field campaign, the presentation will focus on ATR42 flights that crossed warm fronts within Arctic cyclones and during which mixed-phase clouds have been intensively observed. We will show how the measurements made by in-situ cloud microphysical probes and the remote-sensing platform RALI composed of the Doppler radar RASTA and the lidar LNG on board the ATR42 aircraft have been combined to get a comprehensive picture of mixed-phase clouds properties.