Aircraft measurements of backscatter ratio, particle depolarization and water vapour molecular density profiles over Arctic sea ice and ocean during the HALO-(AC)³ campaign in spring 2022

• Main Authors: Wirth, Martin, Groß, Silke
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2024
• Subjects: AC; AC3; airborne measurements; Aircraft; Arctic; Arctic Amplification; Atmospheric and Earth System Research with HALO – High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft; Date/Time of event; Event label; File content; HALO; HALO_220312a; HALO_220313a; HALO_220314a; HALO_220315a; HALO_220316a; HALO_220320a; HALO_220321a; HALO_220328a; HALO_220329a; HALO_220330a; HALO_220401a; HALO_220404a; HALO_220407a; HALO_220408a; HALO_220410a; HALO_220411a; HALO_220412a; HALO_AC3; HALO-(AC)³; Lidar; netCDF file; netCDF file (File Size); Remote sensing (Light detection and ranging; LiDAR); RF02; RF03; RF04; RF05; RF06; RF07; RF08; RF09; RF10; RF11; RF12; RF13; RF14; RF15; Kiruna; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.967086; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.967086

During the HALO-(AC)³ campaign in March and April 2022 downward looking lidar profiles were measured onboard of the High Altitude LOng range research aircraft (HALO) over the Arctic sea ice and ocean using the airborne demonstrator for the WAter vapour Lidar Experiment in Space (WALES). The data set gives time series of profiles of backscatter ratio, particle depolarization and water vapour molecular density measured along the flight path of HALO on 17 days. All flights started from Kiruna, Sweden and headed into the Fram Straight and towards the central Arctic. The goal of the campaign was to study warm air intrusions and cold air outbreaks to and from the Arctic and to follow those air masses over several days with remote sensing instrumentation aboard HALO. The first research flight (RF) was RF02. RF01 was the transfer flight from Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany to Kiruna. Backscatter ratio and aerosol depolarization data is given with at one second time resolution and 15 m vertical binning at a wavelength of 532 nm. The backscatter profiles are extinction corrected using the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) method. The water vapour profiles have a time resolution of 12 s and a vertical binning of 15 m. For H2O the vertical resolution is lower than given by the binning, where the real resolution is determined by an averaging kernel which is constant over height and has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 250 m. All data is regridded to a constant altitude scale over mean sea level, irrespective of the actual flight altitude.