NCAR Research Aviation Facility

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NCARResearch Aviation Facility
CSU visit 11-April-2007Dave Rogers -
http//www.eol.ucar.edu/dcrogers/index.html
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Airborne Research

• Outline
• U.S. Federal airborne science fleet
• NSF C-130 HIAPER
• Anatomy of RAF
• PACDEX
• Tour C-130 G-V

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UCAR Mesa Lab
Boulder CO
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Federal Airborne Science Fleet
USNP-3
UND
NASADC-8
NOAAP-3
NASAER-2
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Federal Airborne Science Fleet
NASAWB-57
NASAProteus
NASATwin Otter
DOEG-1
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University Aircraft
UND Citation
Univ. Wyoming King-Air
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EOL Systems Partnerships
NCAR Electra - retired
NRL P-3 now carries NCAR Doppler radar
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C130 Research Aircraft

• Atmospheric Boundary Layer
• Oceanography
• Air/Sea Interaction
• Cloud Physics
• Tropospheric Profiling
• Radiometric Measurements
• Atmospheric Chemistry
• Aerosol Measurements

• 10 Hours Endurance
• Range 3100 nm
• Max Operating Altitude 26,000 ft
• 23,000 lb (13,000 with max fuel)
• Electrical Power
• 90kVA _at_ 115 Vac 400 Hz
• 21kVA _at_ 115Vac 60 Hz
• 400A _at_ 28Vdc

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• C-130
• basic instruments
• adjustable configurations
• investigator instruments

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HIAPERHigh-performance Instrumented Airborne
Platform for Environmental Research
Gulfstream-VModifications 2003 2005missions
ProgSci 2005, T-REX 2006, PACDEX 2007
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HIAPER - performance

• Endurance 10 h
• Range 6,000 nm
• Air speeds 120 230 m/s
• Altitude Max 51,000 ft
• Payload 3,400 lb
• Crew 2 pilots 8 sci
• Electrical Power
• 20kVA _at_ 115/208 vac 400 Hz
• 21kVA _at_ 115 vac 60 Hz
• 5 kW _at_ 28 vdc

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RAF Strength Great Staff
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Field Project Support

• RAF staff of 35 people
• project management scientists
• software engineers
• electrical instrumentation engineers
• aeronautical engineer
• instrument technicians
• aircraft mechanics
• pilots flight engineers
• scientists
• administration

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Data Systems, Software, Processing, and Archival
tools for data display and analysis free! -
http//www.eol.ucar.edu/raf/Software/
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RAF Field Projects
Earlier projects 2000 TOPSE Greenland to
Manitoba 1999 MAPS Italy-Austria-Switzerland 199
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PACDEX - tracking Asian dust plume
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step descent/ascent profiles deviating to
sample clouds (See next figures)
PACDEX Japan-Japan Flight
Russian Airspace
JAPAN
Possible plume
1 hr
Get above plume During ferry to Sampling region
Possible plume
Hawaii
Plume track determined by forecast (only one
plume)
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PACDEX - wing store instruments

• UHSAS aerosol size distr 70 -1000 nm
• CDP cloud droplet probe, 2 - 60 µm
• 2DC cloud particle size distr images
  100-1600 µm
• SID-2H cloud particle size distr phase, 2 -
  60 µm
• RICE supercooled cloud water
• King liquid water condensate (g m-3)
• video forward looking

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PACDEX cabin2 pilots1 mechanic7 -
science crew9 - instrument racks
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PACDEX - cabin instruments

• state parameters (T, P, humidity) winds
• water vapor
• ozone
• CO carbon monoxide
• HARP radiation (actinic flux spectral
  irradiance 0.4 - 2 µm)
• CVI cloud condensate (gt 5 µm, cloud particle
  residuals)
• CFDC (CSU) ice nucleating aerosol particles
• CCN cloud condensation nuclei (0.2 1 ss)
• SP-2 soot particles (gt100 nm size conc)
• streakers impactor aerosol particle
  collectors for SEM analysis
• RDMA aerosol size distribution (10 150 nm)
• CN total particle conc.
• GNI giant nuclei impactor ( gt 2 µm)
• satcom satellite telephone data communications
• real-time display stations Internet Relay chat

more about PACDEX - http//www.eol.ucar.edu/projec
ts/pacdex/
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dynamic heating of air samples

• predictable from thermodynamics
• loss of volatile components from particles

o
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tour C-130 HIAPER

• Photos of G-Vs green parts are not allowed.
• Otherwise, take all the pictures you want.

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• More information about RAF
• http//raf.atd.ucar.edu/