Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility US Department of Energy
 
 

ARM Cloud Aerosol Precipitation Experiment (ACAPEX)

14 January 2015 - 12 February 2015

Lead Scientist: L. Ruby Leung

Observatory: amf, acx

The western United States receives precipitation predominantly during the cold season when storms approach from the Pacific Ocean. The snowpack that accumulates during winter storms provides about 70-90 percent of water supply for the region. Understanding and modeling the fundamental processes that govern the large precipitation variability and extremes in the western U.S. is a critical test for the ability of climate models to predict the regional water cycle, including floods and droughts. Two elements of significant importance in predicting precipitation variability in the western U.S. are atmospheric rivers and aerosols. Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow bands of enhanced water vapor associated with the warm sector of extratropical cyclones over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Because of the large lower-tropospheric water vapor content, strong atmospheric winds, and neutral moist static stability, some ARs can produce heavy precipitation by orographic enhancement during landfall on the U.S. West Coast. While ARs are responsible for a large fraction of heavy precipitation in that region during winter, much of the rest of the orographic precipitation occurs in post-frontal clouds, which are typically quite shallow, with tops just high enough to pass the mountain barrier. Such clouds are inherently quite susceptible to aerosol effects on both warm rain and ice precipitation-forming processes.

This campaign consisted of the deployment of the ARM Mobile Facility 2 (AMF2) and the ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) Gulfstream-1 aircraft in a field campaign called ARM Cloud Aerosol Precipitation Experiment (ACAPEX), which took place in conjunction with CalWater 2, a NOAA field campaign. The joint CalWater 2/ACAPEX field campaign aimed to improve understanding and modeling of large-scale dynamics and cloud and precipitation processes associated with ARs and aerosol-cloud interactions that influence precipitation variability and extremes in the western U.S. The observational strategy consisted of the use of land and offshore assets to monitor:

  • the evolution and structure of ARs from near their regions of development
  • the long-range transport of aerosols in the eastern North Pacific and potential interactions with ARs
  • how aerosols from long-range transport and local sources influence cloud and precipitation in the U.S. West Coast, where ARs make landfall and post-frontal clouds are frequent.

The AMF2 was deployed on a research vessel offshore and provided critical measurements to quantify the moisture budget and cloud and precipitation processes associated with ARs and to characterize aerosols and aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions associated with aerosols from long-range transport in the Pacific Ocean. The G-1 probed the clouds that form over the ocean and their transformations upon landfall as well as the orographic effects over the coastal range and the Sierra Nevada. The G-1 flights provided the critical information needed for comparing the simulated and observed processes of the vertical profiles of cloud microstructure and the resultant precipitation initiation and glaciation. This allowed the development and validation of more realistic simulations that replicated the aircraft measurements and thus quantify more reliably the entities that cannot be obtained directly by the aircraft measurements to improve understanding and modeling of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. ARM Operational Periods: ARM Mobile Facility 2: 2015.01.12—2015.02.12 ARM Aerial Facility: 2015.01.02—2015.02.27

The NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown, above, played host to the AMF2 for ACAPEX. The G-1 returned to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento, California, for flights over the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Ocean.

The NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown, above, played host to the AMF2 for ACAPEX. The G-1 returned to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento, California, for flights over the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Ocean.

Diagram of the G-1's flight-plan over the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Ocean.

Diagram of the G-1's flight-plan over the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Ocean.

The CalWater2/ACAPEX observational strategy is to use high- and low-altitude aircraft, a ship with the AMF2 and a ground-based network.

The CalWater2/ACAPEX observational strategy is to use high- and low-altitude aircraft, a ship with the AMF2 and a ground-based network.

Co-Investigators

Chris Fairall Kimberly Prather Ryan Spackman
Jiwen Fan Marty Ralph Duane Waliser
Samson Hagos Veerabhadran Ramanathan Hailong Wang
Mimi Hughes Daniel Rosenfeld
Chuck Long Steven Rutledge

Timeline

  • Child Campaign

2024

Nie Y, X Li, Q Paletta, M Aragon, A Scott, and A Brandt. 2024. "Open-source sky image datasets for solar forecasting with deep learning: A comprehensive survey." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 189, 113977, 10.1016/j.rser.2023.113977.

2023

Waman D, A Deshmukh, A Jadav, S Patade, M Gautam, V Phillips, A Bansemer, and J Jakobsson. 2023. "Effects from time dependence of ice nucleus activity for contrasting cloud types." Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 80(8), 10.1175/JAS-D-22-0187.1.

2022

Seo J, T Wagner, P Gero, and D Turner. 2022. "The impact of non-zenith elevation angles on ground-based infrared thermodynamic retrievals." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, , 10.1175/JTECH-D-21-0134.1. ONLINE.

Lin Y, J Fan, P DeMott, L Goldberger, J Comstock, Y Liu, J Jeong, and J Tomlinson. 2022. "Modeling impacts of ice-nucleating particles from marine aerosols on mixed-phase orographic clouds during 2015 ACAPEX field campaign." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22(10), 10.5194/acp-22-6749-2022.
Research Highlight

Deshmukh A, V Phillips, A Bansemer, S Patade, and D Waman. 2022. "New Empirical Formulation for the Sublimational Breakup of Graupel and Dendritic Snow." Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 79(1), 10.1175/JAS-D-20-0275.1.
Research Highlight

2020

Welti A, E Bigg, P DeMott, X Gong, M Hartmann, M Harvey, S Henning, P Herenz, T Hill, B Hornblow, C Leck, M Löffler, C McCluskey, A Rauker, J Schmale, C Tatzelt, M van Pinxteren, and F Stratmann. 2020. "Ship-based measurements of ice nuclei concentrations over the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20(23), 10.5194/acp-20-15191-2020.

Matthews A and LA Goldberger. 2020. Multi-Element Water Content System Instrument Handbook. Ed. by Robert Stafford, ARM user facility. DOE/SC-ARM-TR-261. 10.2172/1725880.

Schill G, P DeMott, E Emerson, A Rauker, J Kodros, K Suski, T Hill, E Levin, J Pierce, D Farmer, and S Kreidenweis. 2020. "The contribution of black carbon to global ice nucleating particle concentrations relevant to mixed-phase clouds." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(37), 10.1073/pnas.2001674117.

Goldberger LA, F Mei, J Hubbe, and CD Kluzek. 2020. Navigation and Meteorological Data from Multiple Sensors on Airborne Platform (NAVMET-AIR) Value-Added Product Report. Ed. by Robert Stafford, ARM user facility. DOE/SC-ARM-TR-255. 10.2172/1671342.

Goldberger L. 2020. Cloud, Aerosol, and Precipitation Spectrometer Instrument Handbook. Ed. by Robert Stafford, ARM user facility. DOE/SC-ARM-TR-246.


View All Related Publications

Campaign Data Sets

IOP Participant Data Source Name Final Data
Jennifer Comstock 2D-S Particle Size Order Data
Paul DeMott Continuous Flow Thermal Diffusion Chamber - Aboard Aircraft Order Data
Paul DeMott Ice Nucleation Spectrometer - Ronald H. Brown Order Data
Paul DeMott Ice Spectrometer Order Data
Chris Fairall Met Order Data
Jonathan Gero Marine Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer Order Data
John Hubbe Ambient Winds- AIMMS Order Data
John Hubbe Particle Volume Monitor Order Data
Alyssa Matthews Cloud Droplet Probe Order Data
Alyssa Matthews High Volume Precip Spectrometer Order Data
Alyssa Matthews High Volume Precipitation Spectrometer - Images Order Data
Alyssa Matthews Two Dimensional Stereo (2DS) Particle Imaging Probe Order Data
Alyssa Matthews Water Content Monitor Order Data
Fan Mei Cloud Aerosol Precip Spectrometer(CAPS)/Cloud Imaging Probe (CIP) Order Data
Fan Mei Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter Order Data
Fan Mei Condensation Particle Counter Order Data
Fan Mei Fast Cloud Droplet Probe (FCDP) Order Data
Fan Mei Meteorology/State/Position Parameters- G1 Aircraft Order Data
Nicholas Nalli Ozone Sondes Order Data
Mikhail Pekour Counterflow Virtual Impactor (CVI) Order Data
Mikhail Pekour Optical Particle Counter - Counterflow Virtual Impactor Order Data
Mikhail Pekour Optical Particle Counter - Isokinetic Order Data
Kimberly Prather Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Order Data
Arthur Sedlacek Single Particle Soot Photometer Order Data
Stephen Springston Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxide Order Data
Stephen Springston Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxide Order Data
Stephen Springston Particle Soot Absorption Photometer - G-1 Aircraft Order Data
Jason Tomlinson Cloud Spectrometer and Impactor (CSI) Order Data
Jason Tomlinson Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer Order Data
Jason Tomlinson Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Order Data
Jason Tomlinson Ultra High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer- G1 Aircraft Order Data
Jason Tomlinson Video - G1 Aircraft Order Data

ACX Data Sources

Name Full Name Browse Data
AERI Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer Browse Data
AOS Aerosol Observing System Browse Data
AOSMET Meteorological Measurements associated with the Aerosol Observing System Browse Data
CCN Cloud Condensation Nuclei Particle Counter Browse Data
CEIL Ceilometer Browse Data
CEILPBLHT Boundary-layer height data with CEIL Browse Data
CEILSHIPCOR Ceilometer Corrected for Ship Motion Browse Data
CPC Condensation Particle Counter Browse Data
CSPHOT Sunphotometer Browse Data
HSRL High Spectral Resolution Lidar Browse Data
HSRLSHIPCOR HSRL Corrected for Ship Motion Browse Data
HTDMA Humidified Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer Browse Data
IRT Infrared Thermometer Browse Data
KAZR Ka ARM Zenith Radar Browse Data
KAZRSHIPCOR KAZR Ship Motion Correction Browse Data
LSSONDE Microwave Radiometer-Scaled Sonde Profiles Browse Data
MPL Micropulse Lidar Browse Data
MPLCMASK Cloud mask from Micropulse Lidar Browse Data
MPLPOLFSSHIPCOR MPL Corrected for Ship Motion Browse Data
MWACR Marine W-Band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar Browse Data
MWACRSHIPCOR MWACR Ship Motion Correction Browse Data
MWR Microwave Radiometer Browse Data
MWR3C Microwave Radiometer, 3 Channel Browse Data
NAV Navigational Location and Attitude Browse Data
NAVBE Navigational Location and Attitude Best Estimate Browse Data
NEPHELOMETER Nephelometer Browse Data
OZONE Ozone Monitor Browse Data
PBLHT Planetary Boundary Layer Height Browse Data
PRP Portable Radiation Package Browse Data
PSAP Particle Soot Absorption Photometer Browse Data
RWP Radar Wind Profiler Browse Data
SONDE Balloon-Borne Sounding System Browse Data
S-TABLE Stabilized Platform Browse Data
TSI Total Sky Imager Browse Data