ML-CIRRUS
Formation, Lifetime, Properties and Radiative Impact of Mid–Latitude Cirrus Clouds
Mission status: Completed
Persons in Charge
Mission-PI
Christiane Voigt (DLR-IPA)
Contact point at DLR-FX for this mission:
HALO Project Management: Martina Hierle
Postal address:
DLR Oberpfaffenhofen
Flugexperimente (FX)
Münchener Str. 20
82234 Weßling
Germany
Office phone:
+49 (0)8153 28-1792
HALO Deployment Base
Project Description
Cirrus clouds, which often occur in the upper troposphere, are very important for the weather, atmospheric chemistry and the climate. Air traffic may form artificial cirrus clouds via condensation trails, which quickly develop into widespread cirrus clouds in ice supersaturated air. However, the detailed mechanism through which ice crystals form is still largely unknown. During the ML-CIRRUS mission (Formation, Lifetime, Properties and Radiative/Chemical Impact of Mid-Latitude Cirrus Clouds), comprehensive instrumentation were used to measure the properties of cirrus clouds.
To do this, HALO was fitted with equipment such as a lidar, a measuring instrument that emits laser pulses and receives the signals backscattered from molecules and particles in the atmosphere. This enables to measure, among other things, the concentration profiles of water vapour, aerosol and cirrus particles below the flight altitude to be surveyed. In order to characterise ice particles in terms of size, number concentration and shape, special measurement probes will be fitted under the wings.
During the mission, the scientists aimed to investigate both the formation processes of natural cirrus clouds and the formation of ice clouds induced by air traffic. Some of the measurement flights took place in the North Atlantic flight corridor, including about 1000 flights per day.
Time Period
Feb – Apr 2014
Partners
- German Aerospace Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics (DLR-IPA)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZ Jülich)
- Goethe University Frankfurt
- Heidelberg University
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- University of Wuppertal
Scientific instruments and payload configuration
List of scientific instruments for the mission:
| Scientific instrument acronym | Description | Principal investigator | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| WALES | Water Vapour Differential Absorption Lidar | Andreas Fix, Martin Wirth | DLR-IPA |
| FISH | Fast In-situ Stratospheric Hygrometer | Martina Krämer | FZ Jülich |
| HAI | Hygrometer for Atmospheric Investigations | Volker Ebert, Bernhard Buchholz | PTB (National Metrology Institute) |
| FAIRO | Fast Ozone Measurement | Andreas Zahn | KIT |
| AENEAS | NOY Measurement | Helmut Ziereis | DLR-IPA |
| AIMS | Atmospheric Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer | Christiane Voigt, Tina Jurkat | DLR-IPA |
| Dropsonde system | Meteorological Dropsondes | Stefan Kaufmann | DLR-IPA |
| miniDOAS | Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy | Klaus Pfeilsticker | Univ. Heidelberg |
| BAHAMAS | HALO Basic Data Acquisition System | Andreas Giez | DLR-FX |
Cabin and exterior configuration of HALO for the mission
HALO cabin layout for ML-CIRRUS
Schematic HALO PMS wing carrier configuration for ML-CIRRUS
Halo flights for this mission
| Aircraft registration | Date | Take off - Landing / UT | Total flight time / h | From - To | Mission # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D-ADLR | 2014-02-07 | 10:50:00 - 12:45:00 | 1.917 | EDMO - EDMO | Flight test |
| D-ADLR | 2014-02-10 | 07:30:00 - 08:00:00 | 0.500 | EDMO - EDMO | Flight test |
| D-ADLR | 2014-02-10 | 10:50:00 - 12:30:00 | 1.667 | EDMO - EDMO | Flight test |
| D-ADLR | 2014-02-11 | 10:30:00 - 11:25:00 | 0.917 | EDMO - EDMO | Flight test |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-19 | 10:20:00 - 12:25:00 | 2.083 | EDMO - EDMO | Flight test |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-21 | 11:55:00 - 14:10:00 | 2.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-22 | 08:55:00 - 10:55:00 | 2.000 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-22 | 11:30:00 - 13:45:00 | 2.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-26 | 05:50:00 - 14:05:00 | 8.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-27 | 11:00:00 - 15:30:00 | 4.500 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-03-29 | 12:35:00 - 19:50:00 | 7.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-01 | 09:35:00 - 15:55:00 | 6.333 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-03 | 13:15:00 - 18:15:00 | 5.000 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-04 | 09:05:00 - 15:55:00 | 6.833 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-04 | 17:05:00 - 19:40:00 | 2.583 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-07 | 07:00:00 - 12:20:00 | 5.333 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-10 | 13:30:00 - 16:30:00 | 3.000 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-11 | 07:25:00 - 12:20:00 | 4.917 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-11 | 13:25:00 - 17:40:00 | 4.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-13 | 10:30:00 - 17:45:00 | 7.250 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
| D-ADLR | 2014-04-15 | 07:50:00 - 10:35:00 | 2.750 | EDMO - EDMO | Mission flight |
More information
Press releases, media etc
Press release DLR (24-Mar-2014):
Klimafaktor Eiswolke: Forschungsflugzeug HALO untersucht Zirren und Kondensstreifen
Press release TROPOS (24-Mar-2014):
Klimafaktor Eiswolke: Forschungsflugzeug HALO untersucht Zirren und Kondensstreifen. [..] Mit an Bord bei der HALO-Mission ML-CIRRUS ist auch ein Einlass-System des TROPOS zur Sammlung von Eispartikeln (Gegenstrom-Impaktor, engl. Counterflow Virtual Impactor, kurz CVI. [Read more..]
DIE WELT (24-Mar-2014):
Wie Eiswolken den Klimawandel beeinflussen. Wissenschaftler des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt und des Forschungszentrums Jülich wollen den Einfluss von Wolken auf den Treibhauseffekt mithilfe des Forschungsflugzeugs „Halo“ erkunden. [Read more..]
DLR Luftfahrt News-Archiv (24-Mar-2014)
Ice clouds as a climate factor – research aircraft HALO examines cirrus clouds and vapour trails. Unanswered questions about the formation of clouds and their impact on the climate are currently setting limitations on the validity of global climate forecasts. To make a detailed analysis of the climate effects of natural ice clouds and the vapour trails created by air traffic, the HALO (High Altitude and LOng Range) research aircraft embarked on the first of a total of 12 measurement flights on 24 March 2014. For four weeks, as part of the ML-CIRRUS (Mid-Latitude Cirrus) mission, ice clouds (also known as ‚cirrus‘) will be measured at altitudes of between eight and 14 kilometres above Europe and the North Atlantic.
Read more.. (in English) | Weiterlesen.. (auf deutsch)
Publications
Schumann, U., Baumann, R., Baumgardner, D., Bedka, S. T., Duda, D. P., Freudenthaler, V., Gayet, J.-F., Heymsfield, A. J., Minnis, P., Quante, M., Raschke, E., Schlager, H., Vázquez-Navarro, M., Voigt, C., and Wang, Z.: Properties of individual contrails: a compilation of observations and some comparisons, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 403-438, doi:10.5194/acp-17-403-2017, 2017. http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/403/2017/
Voigt, C., Minikin, A., Schumann, U., Abdelmonem, A., Afchine, A., Borrmann, S., Boettcher, M., Buchholz, B., Bugliaro, L., Costa, A., Curtius, J., Dollner, M., Dörnbrack, A., Dreiling, V., Ebert, V., Ehrlich, A., Fix, A., Forster, L., Frank, F., Fütterer, D., Giez, A., Graf, K., Grooß, J.-U., Groß, S., Heimerl, K., Heinold, B., Hüneke, T., Järvinen, E., Jurkat, T., Kaufmann, S., Kenntner, M., Klingebiel, M., Klimach, T., Kohl, R., Krämer, M., Krisna, T. C., Luebke, A., Mayer, B., Mertes, S., Molleker, S., Petzold, A., Pfeilsticker, K., Port, M., Rapp, M., Reutter, P., Rolf, C., Rose, D., Sauer, D., Schäfler, A., Schlage, R., Schnaiter, M., Schneider, J., Spelten, N., Spichtinger, P., Stock, P., Walser, A., Weigel, R., Weinzierl, B., Wendisch, M., Werner, F., Wernli, H., Wirth, M., Zahn, A., Ziereis, H., and Zöger, M.: ML-CIRRUS – The airborne experiment on natural cirrus and contrail cirrus with the high-altitude long-range research aircraft HALO, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., online, doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00213.1, 2016.
Wolf, K., Ehrlich, A., Hüneke, T., Pfeilsticker, K., Werner, F., Wirth, M., and Wendisch, M.: Potential of remote sensing of cirrus optical thickness by airborne spectral radiance measurements in different viewing angles and nadir geometry, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/acp-2016-970, in review, 2016.
Urbanek, B., Groß, S., Schäfler, A., and Wirth, M.: Determining stages of cirrus life-cycle evolution: A cloud classification scheme, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., doi:10.5194/amt-2016-332, in review, 2016.