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CRYSTAL FACE: An Intensive Field Campaign for the Study of Tropical Cirrus

Mather, J.H.(a), Mace, G.G.(b), Ackerman, T.P.(a), Comstock, J.M.(a), Flynn, C.J.(a), Widener, K.B.(a), and Marchand, R.T.(a), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (a), University of Utah (b)
Twelfth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

In July of 2002, ARM will take part in CRYSTAL (Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers), a joint experiment with NASA for the purpose of studying cirrus clouds generated by tropical convection. FACE, the Florida Anvil Cirrus Experiment, is the first of two phases of the CRYSTAL experiment. FACE will be held in south Florida while the second phase will be held in the Tropical Western Pacific. The FACE component of the experiment will provide a testing ground for the Pacific component and it will allow for a more extensive suite of ground-based instruments than the Pacific component. Florida was chosen for the first phase of CRYSTAL because it provides a very reliable source of frequent convection. ARM's role in CRYSTAL FACE is to provide a suite of ground based remote sensing instruments. This suite of instruments will strongly resemble those found at the CART sites and will include broadband radiometers, a microwave radiometer, a Total Sky Imager, two millimeter cloud radars, and a lidar. There will be other groups providing ground based instrumentation including an S-band precipitation radar and other cloud detecting instruments. While ARM observes the cirrus from the ground, there will be six aircraft observing the clouds from a range of perspectives from the low-flying twin otter to the ER-2. These airborne platforms will carry a host of in situ and remote sensing instruments to characterize the cirrus. In addition to the measurement there will be modellers on hand during the experiment to study the dynamics, microphysics, and radiative properties of the clouds being observed. This data set, and the one to follow in the Western Pacific, will provide an extensive look at cirrus which will augment ARM's work in tropical cloud studies.

Note: This is the poster abstract presented at the meeting; an extended version was not provided by the author(s).