Logistics, instrumentation, work program
The CAFE‐Pacific aircraft measurements will likely be performed from Cairns in North Australia from where both Indonesia and the Pacific warm pool (e.g. Micronesia and the Solomon Islands) can be easily reached. Cairns offers excellent infrastructure for aircraft operation, and has been used for meteorological studies of deep convection in the past. The convectively most intense period is December – February, which will be aimed for in the period 2022 – 2023. The number of HALO flight hours needed on location is about 100, and by including transfer and test flights, a total of 160 flight hours are planned.
The payload is planned to be the same as the CAFE‐Brazil payload. This payload offers a unique instrumental combination that allows to study simultaneously a comprehensive set of radical and trace gas species to study the oxidative chemistry, aerosol formation and initial growth, as well as aerosol composition and CCN properties at an unprecedented level of completeness and precision. The instrumentation includes in situ measurements of numerous gas phase species, aerosol and photochemical properties (OH, HO2 , H2O2, RO2, O3, NO, NO2, PAN/PAA, ClNO2, HCl, H2O, SO2, H2SO4, HOMs, clusters, NMVOC, OVOC, HCHO, CO, CH4; aerosol composition (non‐refractory), aerosol number, aerosol size distribution, CCN, BC, actinic flux).
Preparing and conducting the CAFE‐Pacific mission, analyzing the data and integral interpretation combined with state‐of‐the‐art modelling will comprise a three‐year program.