IRTG online lectures

#08 Topic: Airborne study of Artic aerosol and Black Carbon & using of the new towed vehicle T-Bird
Lecturer: Andreas Herber
Date: Monday, March 3, 2025 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

As part of the IRTG Online lecture, I am reporting on the current status and initial results of the towed vehicle T-Bird. This is a joint project between AWI Bremerhaven and TROPOS Leipzig. The T-Bird is a new aircraft-towed instrument platform to measure turbulence and aerosol properties close to the surface. The T-Bird is a passive trailing body towed below the AWI polar aircraft POLAR 5 or POLAR 6. The body is attached to the aircraft by a cable of variable length, which also supplies power from the aircraft to the T-Bird. It can be winched to a maximum of appr. 100 m cable length allowing a vertical distance between bird and aircraft of about 60m at typical measurement speed of 90 – 130 knots. The actual rules of the air safety regulation allow aircraft measurements only higher than 60 to 80 m above ground, the use of the T-Bird extends the measurement range to as low as appr. 10 – 15 m above flat surface. This unique measurement setup allows us to measure key parameters within the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer at the important low level with a simultaneous second measurement level above realized by the sensors onboard the airplane. Beyond this, various other dual-level-measurements in polar regions are feasible, that are desirable for e.g. cloud and aerosol physics studies. This allows us to improving our understanding of air ice ,interactions over fractional sea ice, as well as of aerosol cloud interaction and aerosol formation in the ABL and the free troposphere.