Polar 6 campaign NETCARE 2014

Polar 6 campaign NETCARE 2014
                         Resolute Bay/Nunavut/Canada
                         Weekly Report 1: 30. June – 13.July 2014
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1. Introduction

The actual campaign is the first of two research aircraft mission in the Arctic as
part of NETCARE ([NETwork on Climate and Aerosols: Addressing Key
Uncertainties in Remote Canadian Environments), initiated by University of
Toronto. For NETCARE summer altogether 90 flight hours (including Ferry) for
of POLAR 6 aircraft is allocated in AWI's operational schedule for summer
2014 in the Canadian Arctic out of Resolute Bay (Nunavut, Canada). The
activity can see in the blog: http://www.netcare-project.ca/amundsen-and-polar6-blog-1/
This report briefly summarizes flight activities during this campaign.

There are multiple goals to this campaign – to look for evidence of aerosols
formed from emissions from the ice or ocean (and compare these particles to
those transported in) and to examine relationships between the aerosol and low-
level cloud. As well, near the end of the campaign, we will study Amundsen
ship emissions and hopefully their impact on cloud. So far, the first part of the
campaign has been successful. Resolute has been under mostly cloud-free
conditions and there have been different degrees and types of cloud nearby
Resolute over the sea ice and open ocean. There has not been significant
evidence of long-range transport, allowing us to study the typical summertime
Arctic atmosphere. Overall, sunny conditions favor new particle formation,
whereas cloud conditions favor studies of the impacts of aerosol on cloud.

There is a highly detailed particle data set, and valuable trace gas measurements,
which inform us about structure of the atmosphere and transport. One issue to
consider is that many of the particle instruments are being shut off around
10,000’ and so the information content from the higher altitude flights is
somewhat limited. With a limited number of flight hours remaining before the
Amundsen arrives, our primary attention will be given to repeated
measurements of phenomena we have observed in the first four flights, e.g.
evidence of new particle formation and growth in the lowest levels of the
boundary layer and above low level cloud, and influence of aerosol on cloud
properties.

2. Weather Situation

The weather situation around Resolute Bay and the regions of interest were
dominated by high-pressure influence. All intensive lows were far away, no
fronts reached the area. Low clouds/stratus was observed over ice and open
water, also some scattered to broken cumulus clouds in the first days. Scattered
to broken mid level clouds drifted in, but most hours of the day’s clear sky
conditions or few have been the prevailing conditions.

3. Science equipment

The Polar 6 arrived fully equipped and all systems are operational. The power
and data distribution to instruments is OK, power requirements during flight are
well in the acceptable range (300A of 800A without deicing). During the first
flight the AWI data-acquisition system is working as well as BMET, radiation
sensors, KT19, Sun photometer, SP2 and UHSAS. The Sun photometer was
temporary (one flight) out of operation. Minor problems with video and photo
camera appeared during the ferry, but could be solved before the first survey
flight. The systems from the Mainz group (MPI and JGU) performed without
problems during all flights, namely CO sensor, CO2/H20 sensor and
ALABAMA. The mass spectrometer SP-AMS has worked well on POLAR 6
but has some problems with rapid temperature and altitude transitions. The
pilots and AWI engineers have been very helpful in creating practical solutions
to these issues. With a few minor problems, the ultrafine TSI-CPC, BMI-SMPS,
DMT-CCN, PMS-FSSP100 and PMS-2DC have worked properly.
Approximately 12 samples for IN analysis have been collected. The Nevzorov
probe has not functioned properly, but the issues may have been resolved. The
CLAP and EC-LI-COR are not operating. Ground power (28V) is sufficient and
UoT, EC and Mainz group racks are powered with 115V on the ground.
Temperatures are moderate so there are no temperature problems due to heating

The Soot-Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (SP-AMS) measures aerosol
composition in real time. So far, the SP-AMS has measured higher levels of
aerosol, such as sulfate aerosol, aloft and lower levels near the ocean and sea-ice
surface. During four flights between July 4th and July 8th measurements of the
trace gases CO, CO2 and water vapor allow for a characterization of the
structure of the lower troposphere in the different measurement regions. Vertical
profiles of these species, especially water vapor, indicate differing extensions of
a mixing layer in the lower troposphere depending on the measurement region.
On the flight of July 8th a pollution layer was observed at an altitude between
550 and 500 hPa with enhanced mixing ratios of CO and ozone. During the first
flight it was observed with the UHSAS the high variability of the particle
number and size distribution and sometime Black Carbon were detected. The
ALABAMA (Aircraft-based Laser Ablation Aerosol Mass Spectrometer) is a

single particle mass spectrometer. The data products are different mass spectras
(= chemical composition) of individual aerosol particles. During the last flights
it detected vertical transition layers with different particle concentrations and
also higher particle concentrations on top of a cloud layer. On every flight thus
far, increased concentrations of ultrafine particles, suggestive of new particle
formation, have been observed low over ice, cloud and water surfaces where the
concentrations of larger particles are much lower. Clouds have been sampled on
a few occasions. Notably, extremely low droplet number concentrations have
been measured in low clouds associated with polynia’s on two flights.

4. Flight Summary

We have performed a test flight in Muskoka (Ontario, Canada) on 26th of June
2014 and it was planned to start to Ferry to Resolute bay via Churchill on
Monday (30th of June 2014). Due to bad weather conditions POLAR 6 has
arrived at Resolute Bay on 3rd of July 2014, two days later like expected. On the
next day we started with the science program. The scientific flights are listed
below. In total, 30.3 hours (flight time) have been flown until now, including the
ferry flights from Muskoka to Resolute Bay. Six research flights were done so
far.
•    4th of July 2014: The first flight was a shorter flight in clear sky conditions
     south over the sea ice edge in Lancaster Sound.
•    5th of July 2014: We flew north over two large polynyas with varying
     degrees of cloud (cloud-free, fog-like and low-level).
•    7th of July 2014: We repeated the flight from the 5th of July to measure in
     cloud over the polynyas.
•    8th of July 2014: We flew southwest of Resolute over Lancaster Sound,
     then east over the Sound and back to the west at low level. The
     measurements were initially over solid ice and then over/in low-level
     cloud. The flight concluded with a vertical profile to 20,000 feet.
•    10th of July 2014: We flew north over the polynyas, as on flights 6 and 7,
     sampling aerosol and low cloud south-north over the polynyas and flanking
     ice. From north of the polynyas, profiling was conducted at various
     altitudes to about 100 km southwest of Resolute and back to Resolute.
•    12th of July 2014: We flew southwest of Resolute over Lancaster Sound,
     then east over the Sound and back to the west at low level. The
     measurements were initially over solid ice and then over/in low-level
     cloud. During the flight we carried out a radiation box in 9500 feet for
     calibration of the up- and downward looking shortwave radiation sensors.
9
9
9

No. Flight / Date      Subject                            Flight time
  26.06.2014             Muskoka (Test flight)              2.1
  Nr. 1-2 / 02.07.2014   Muskoka - Churchill (Ferry)        7.9
  Nr. 3-4 / 03.07.2014   Churchill – Resolute Bay (Ferry)   7.6

  Nr. 5 / 04.07.2014     Resolute Bay                       3.7
  Nr. 6 / 05.07.2014     Resolute Bay                       4.9
  Nr. 7 / 07.07.2017     Resolute Bay                       5.6
  Nr. 8/ 08.07.2014      Resolute Bay                       5.3
  Nr. 9 / 10.07.2014     Resolute Bay                       5.0
  Nr.10 / 12.07.2014     Resolute Bay                       5.1
  TOTAL                                                     47.0
            Table 1: Overview on the flight activity of POLAR 6

The NETCARE Team                               Resolute Bay, 13. July 2014

  Figure 1: Group photo oft he NETCARE Summer team (photo: A. Herber)

Figure 2: Sea fog over polynia – North from Resolute Bay (photo: Kevin Elke)

    Figure 3: Polar 6 nearby the Devon Island glacier (photo: Kevin Elke)