Navy Tethered Balloon Measurements Made During the 'Fire' Marine Stratocu IFO (Intensive Field Operation)
Abstract
For a ten-day period beginning 15 July 1987, tethered balloon measurements were made of turbulence, aerosol, cloud particles, and meteorology at San Nicolas Island, CA during the 'FIRE' marine strato-cumulus Intensive Field Operation (IFO). The primary interest of the Naval Research Laboratory during this experiment was to obtain a data set which could be used for testing the predictions of the Navy Oceanic Vertical Aerosol Model (NOVAM) which describes the atmosphere's optical/infrared properties in terms of easily obtained meteorological data. Two new instruments, flown aboard the balloon, were a saturation hygrometer, which measures 95%<RH<150% with an accuracy of 0. 05 near 100% RH, and a forward scatter meter which gives in situ measurements of liquid water content at more than 10 Hz. As a result of this experiment a unique and greatly improved look at the microphysics of the clear and cloud topped boundary layer can be taken. In this report the quality of the data obtained is discussed and some preliminary results are given. Algorithms for the instrumentation flown aboard the balloon are given and profiles of some of the measurements are shown. Keywords: Santa Barbara Islands; NOVAM computer program; Marine boundary layer; Atmosphere models; Atmospheric temperature; Relative humidity profiles; Liquid water profiles; Wind speed profiles; Aerostat; Nephelometers; Aerosols; Particle spectrometers; Strato cumulus clouds; Collocated measurements; Orthogonal transformation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 03, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA207312
Entities
People
- H. Gerber
- Jeffrey E. James
- S. G. Gathman
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory