Field Validation of Cloud Properties Sensor Field Campaign Report

Abstract

The purpose of this campaign is to deploy Aerodyne Research Inc.’s extended wavelength cloud optical properties sensor (TWST-EN) in an operationally relevant environment with co-located, validated sensors. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory is ideal for this deployment because of the variety of operational sensors that can measure some of the same cloud properties using different modalities. While cloud property sensors have long existed, they tend to be costly to produce and maintain. Our sensor measures absolute spectral radiance in the two bands and will retrieve cloud optical depth (COD), droplet effective radius, and thermodynamic phase. Our prototype is built predominantly from off-the-shelf components and uses uncooled spectrometers. A lower-cost, easy-to-use sensor such as this could allow deployment at many more sites for greater spatial coverage. Analysis and retrieval algorithm development using the data from this deployment has been a central technical objective of our U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract (DE-SC0020473: Low-Cost Shortwave Spectroradiometer for Retrieval of Cloud Properties).