UMGVRCAL

University of Miami G-band Vapor Radiometer Calibration

1 November 2023 - 30 November 2023

Lead Scientist: Paquita Zuidema

Observatory: SGP (Southern Great Plains)

This campaign will place the G-band Vapor Radiometer (GVR), a passive airborne 183-GHz microwave radiometer, at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory during the first two weeks of November 2023. The goal is to calibrate its brightness temperatures using the brightness temperatures calculated from the clear-sky radiosondes launched at the SGP site during the visit and may include comparisons to other Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility instrumentation. The motivation for the calibration is upcoming field campaigns in the Arctic: the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Sub-Arctic Region (CAESAR) in March 2024, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Arctic Radiation-Cloud aerosol Surface Interaction eXperiment (ARCSIX) during summer 2024. These campaigns are motivated by goals similar to those of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program/ARM User Facility, in improving understanding of key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes, particularly those that limit predictive ability of regional and global models. DOE ASR/ARM has supported the Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) and the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) field campaign, and CAESAR/ARCSIX data will complement and expand the phase space of the available observations. Climate change is amplified in the Arctic, with the role of moisture currently being investigated.