Indirect and semi-direct aerosol campaign: The impact of arctic aerosols on clouds

• Published in: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
• Main Authors: McFarquhar, Greg M., Ghan, Steven, Verlinde, Johannes, Korolev, Alexei, Strapp, J. Walter, Schmid, Beat, Tomlinson, Jason M., Wolde, Mengistu, Brooks, Sarah D., Cziczo, Dan, Dubey, Manvendra K., Fan, Jiwen, Flynn, Connor, Gultepe, Ismail, Hubbe, John, Gilles, Mary K., Laskin, Alexander, Lawson, Paul, Leaitch, W. Richard, Liu, Peter, Liu, Xiaohong, Lubin, Dan, Mazzoleni, Claudio, MacDonald, Ann Marie, Moffet, Ryan C., Morrison, Hugh, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, Shupe, Matthew D., Turner, David D., Xie, Shaocheng, Zelenyuk, Alla, Bae, Kenny
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech 2011
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/12770; https://doi.org/10.1175/2010BAMS2935.1

An overview of Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC), aimed to study the impact of Arctic aerosol on clouds, is provided. The general theme of the campaign was to provide detailed observations of aerosols and clouds and gather high-quality data needed to improve the treatment of clouds and aerosols in climate models. The NRC Convair-580 was used for the in situ measurements of clouds, aerosols, and state parameters, and for active and passive remote sensing observations. The results show that ice nuclei (IN) concentrations in the Arctic are generally low, making accurate IN measurements a challenge. Many aerosol layers had horizontal and vertical filamentous structures, in which aerosol number concentration, their size distributions, and compositions varied rapidly along the flight paths.