Atlantic Stratocumulus Cloud Physics Measurements from Aircraft Campaign

June 1992 data from the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) collected aboard the University of Washington's C-131A aircraft. The dataset contains discrete measurements of cloud liquid water content, droplet radius or diameter, and condensation nuclei from several airborne probes. It was created by the LARC_ASDC organization to study the transition from stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds.

Use Cases

• Modeling cloud-top entrainment instability using liquid water content and droplet size measurements.
• Analyzing the relationship between condensation nuclei counts and cloud droplet radius to study aerosol-cloud interactions.
• Investigating diurnal cycles in stratocumulus clouds by correlating time-series measurements of liquid water content with solar absorption effects.
• Studying the impact of patchy drizzle on cloud inhomogeneity using spatial variability in droplet diameter data.

Strengths

• Data from a focused 28-day intensive field observation period in June 1992.
• Includes multiple coordinated physical measurements (liquid water content, droplet size, nuclei counts) from a dedicated research aircraft.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a single month in 1992, lacking long-term trends.
• Spatial coverage is confined to the eastern North Atlantic Ocean near the Azores and Madeira Islands.
• Data format is ASCII, which may require parsing and conversion for modern analysis tools.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earth Data (LARC_ASDC).

Collection Method

Collected via several probes aboard the University of Washington C-131A aircraft during the ASTEX field campaign.

Time Range

June 1-28, 1992.

Freshness

null

Geography

Eastern North Atlantic Ocean, area of the Azores and Madeira Islands.