University
Principal Investigator:
Terry Deshler, Professor, Department of
Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming,
Laramie, WY 82071, USA, 307-766-2006,
deshler@uwyo.edu
Collaboration:
The measurements were collected from Wyoming
particle counters (WPCs) flown on long duration
balloon platforms released from McMurdo Station,
Antarctica (78 S, 167 E) in September 2010 as part
of the Concordiasi project (Rabier
et al., 2010). These measurements were the
culmination of the field aspect of the multi-year
Concordiasi project which was an international
collaboration between the Centre National d'Etudes
Spatiales (CNES), Toulouse, the Laboratoire de
M�t�rologie Dynamique (LMD), Paris, the
University of Colorado (CU), the National Center
for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Purdue, and the
University of Wyoming (UW).
Support: The
Instrument:
The data are from in-situ balloon-borne size resolved
aerosol concentration measurements collected using
the
Post
flight checks: Surprisingly, three of the
four WPCs were recovered after flight. Post fight
checks on the nominal size thresholds found all to
be within 10-20% of their nominal pre flight
values. A description of the post flight checks is
found here.
Access: If
these data are useful for your work and/or
publication, I would appreciate inclusion and/or
proper referencing and acknowledgment for the
source of these data.
Data: The data
and summary plots can be found within the
directory ftp://cat.uwyo.edu/pub/permanent/balloon/Aerosol_InSitu_Meas/Lagrangian_Meas_South_of_60S/
where there
are the following subdirectories:
.../PSC14_2010_0914_0916/
aka PSC1-1, WPC-J9 - lost
- data file: psc14_j9_100914-100916_drft_oz_tfilt.dat
.../PSC15_2010_0908_0914/ aka PSC1-2, WPC-J6 - recovered McMurdo - October 2010 - data file: psc15_j6_100908-100914_drft_oz_tfilt.dat
.../PSC16_2010_0911_0930/ aka PSC3-1, WPC-J8 - recovered McMurdo - October 2010 - data file: psc16_j8_100911-100930_drft_oz_tfilt.dat
.../PSC17_2010_0914_1014/
aka PSC3-2, WPC-J7 - recovered
Tasmania - December 2010 - data file: psc17_j7_100914_101014_drft_oz_tfilt.dat
-- Warning!
The large particle data, at sizes above the
third channel, from PSC17 are highly
questionable and should not be used for
scientific purposes.
Structure of the data files pscNN_jN_yymmdd-yymmdd_drft.dat:
The
yymmdd-yymmdd corresponds to the time span of the
measurements. The files are ascii files with 24
columns and 66 header lines which explain the file
structure. The data
files are a composite of measurements from the
WPC, LMD,
and CNES's payload managements system ISBA. When
both LMD and ISBA provide the same quantity, I
include first LMD data if available and then ISBA.
The source for the data in each data column is
indicated below.
Column -
Data
1 - year month day
(yymmdd) - PSB
2 - hour minute sec (hms) - PSB
3 - decimal day of the current year,
calculated. Convention 12:00:00 UT on January 1 =
1.50000
4 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
.075 micrometers -WPC
5 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
0.15 micrometers -WPC
6 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
0.25 micrometers -WPC
7 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
0.50 micrometers -WPC
8 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
1.00 micrometers -WPC
9 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius >
2.50 micrometers -WPC
10 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius > 5.00
micrometers -WPC
11 - aerosol concentration (cm-3) radius > 15.0
micrometers -WPC
12 - temperature (C) - LMD/ISBA
13 - pressure (hPa) - LMD/ISBA
14 - altitude (km) GPS - LMD/ISBA
15 - potential temperature calculated
16 - latitude GPS (decimal degrees) - LMD/ISBA
17 - longitude GPS (decimal degrees, 0-360) -
LMD/ISBA
18 - solar zenith angle (degrees) - LMD
19 - super pressure (hPa) - ISBA
20 - laser voltage (V) - WPC
21 - laser current (A) - WPC
22 - battery voltage (V) - ISBA
23 - WPC pump temperature (�C) - WPC
24 - laser temperature (�C) - ISBA
25 - ozone (ppb) - from LMD (PSC14, 15) and from
CU (PSC16, 17)
The minimum concentration
measurable with these instruments is given by S /
F, for sample frequency, S=0.1 Hz, and flow rate,
F. The minimum concentration detectable is 6 and 2
x 10-4 cm-3 for F = 167 and
475 cm3 s-1. When the
aerosol concentration is below the detection
threshold of the instrument the concentration is
given as 1.01E-39.
Poisson statistics define the fractional
uncertainty of a counting measurement as its
inverse square root, C-0.5 for C counts
in one sample, becoming important at low
concentrations. The aerosol concentration, N = C S
/ F. Thus the Poisson error fraction, in terms of
concentration, is (N F / S)-0.5. For
these instruments: S = 0.1 Hz, F = 167 and 475 cm3
s-1. This leads to uncertainties of 85,
25, and 8% for concentrations 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 cm-3
at the low flow rate, decreasing a factor of
approximately 1/sqrt(3) for the higher flow rate.
This error dominates at concentrations below 0.01
cm-3. At higher concentrations a
concentration error of �10% reflects comparisons
of concentration measurements from two instruments
using identical aerosol in the laboratory.
Rabier, F., et al., The
Concordiasi project in Antarctica, (2010),
Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., DOI
:10.1175/2009BAMS2764.1, 69-86.