The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC), part of the larg... more The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC), part of the larger experiment known as Elucidating the Role of Clouds-Circulation Coupling in Climate (EUREC 4 A), was held in the western Atlantic during the period 17 January-11 February 2020. This paper describes observations made during ATOMIC by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Lockheed WP-3D Orion research aircraft based on the island of Barbados. The aircraft obtained 95 h of observations over 11 flights, many of which were coordinated with the NOAA research ship R/V Ronald H. Brown and autonomous platforms deployed from the ship. Each flight contained a mixture of sampling strategies including high-altitude circles with frequent dropsonde deployment to characterize the large-scale environment, slow descents and ascents to measure the distribution of water vapor and its isotopic composition, stacked legs aimed at sampling the microphysical and thermodynamic state of the boundary layer, and offset straight flight legs for observing clouds and the ocean surface with remote sensing instruments and the thermal structure of the ocean with in situ sensors dropped from the plane. The characteristics of the in situ observations, expendable devices, and remote sensing instrumentation are described, as is the processing used in deriving estimates of physical quantities. Data archived at the National Center for Environmental Information include flight-level data such as aircraft navigation and basic thermodynamic information (NOAA Air
Cloud radars at X, Ka and W-bands have been used in the past for ocean studies of clouds, but the... more Cloud radars at X, Ka and W-bands have been used in the past for ocean studies of clouds, but the lack of suitable stabilization has limited their usefulness in obtaining accurate measurements of the velocity structure of cloud particles and the heights of cloud features. A 94 GHz (W-band) radar suitable for use on shipboard studies of clouds has been developed that is small and lightweight and can maintain the radar's beam pointing in the vertical to reduce the affects of the pitch and roll of the ship. A vertical velocity sensor on the platform allows the effects of the ship's heave to be removed from the measured cloud particle motions. Results from the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-Rex) field program on the NOAA vessel Ronald H. Brown demonstrate the improvements to the cloud measurements after the ship's motion effects are removed. The compact design of the radar also makes it suitable for use in aircraft studies. The radar is being repackaged to fit in an aft bay of a NOAA P3 aircraft to observe sea-spray profiles during ocean storms.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 1999
During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Atmospheric Radiation Me... more During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, has supported the development of several millimeter-wavelength radars for the study of clouds. This effort has culminated in the development and construction of a 35-GHz radar system by the Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Radar systems based on the NOAA ETL design are now operating at the DOE ARM Southern Great Plains central facility in central Oklahoma and the DOE ARM North Slope of Alaska site near Barrow, Alaska. Operational systems are expected to come online within the next year at the DOE ARM tropical western Pacific sites located at Manus, Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. In order for these radars to detect the full range of atmospheric hydrometeors, specific modes of operation must be implemented on them that are tuned to accurately detect the reflectivities of specific types of hydrometeors. The set of four operational modes that are currently in use on these radars are presented and discussed. The characteristics of the data produced by these modes of operation are also presented in order to illustrate the nature of the cloud products that are, and will be, derived from them on a continuous basis.
Recently, millimeter-wave cloud radars (MMCR) have been added to the extensive arrays of groundba... more Recently, millimeter-wave cloud radars (MMCR) have been added to the extensive arrays of groundbased remote sensors at the Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) sites. These 35-GHz radars have very high sensitivity that enables them to detect most visible clouds overhead (Moran et al. 1998). Unfortunately, the high sensitivity also allows the MMCR to detect insects, bits of vegetation, ash, and other small particulates that are commonly suspended in the convective boundary layer at continental locations in the warm seasons. In the remainder of this article, these various non-hydrometeor targets are referred to simply as “insects.”
10th Annual International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
The horizontal wind coniponent measiirenient s of tlie first NOAA wind profiler are coinparecl wi... more The horizontal wind coniponent measiirenient s of tlie first NOAA wind profiler are coinparecl with those of tlie WPL wind profiler located nearby at Platteville, Colorado and with those reported by the NWS rawinsonde located at Denver, Colorado. These comparisons sliow close agreeiiient among tlie instrument s.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 1991
Abstract A network of 31 radar wind profilers is being installed in the central United States by ... more Abstract A network of 31 radar wind profilers is being installed in the central United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The radars are expected to measure the vertical profile of horizontal and vertical wind starting at 500 m above the surface (AGL) and extending to about 16 km AGL. These 404.37-MHz radars can also be adapted to measure virtual temperature profiles in the lower troposphere by the radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) technique. RASS experiments were conducted using the prototype radar of the NOAA network, and results showed that virtual temperature profiles can be measured starting at 500 m AGL (the lowest height observed with this radar) and extending to 3.5–5.2 km AGL.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1995
The System Demonstration and Integration Division of the Environmental Technology Laboratory and ... more The System Demonstration and Integration Division of the Environmental Technology Laboratory and the Battlefield Environment Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have designed and built the Mobile Profiler System (MPS). The MPS is an integrated system of ground-based and satellite-borne remote sensors that measure nearly continuous wind and temperature profiles from the surface up through the troposphere. Ground-based sensors include a 924-MHz phased-array wind and temperature profiler, a four-channel microwave radiometer, a surface meteorological tower, and a balloon sounding system. Although MPS was initially developed for military applications, the nonmilitary environmental applications are numerous and significant. This paper provides an overview of the instrumentation, software networking, data processing, data integration, and near real-time data display capabilities currently incorporated into the MPS. Initial results from the first field tests (Los Angeles Free-Radical Study, 3-24 September 1993) demonstrate the ability of MPS to observe the complex meteorological structures associated with high-pollution events within the Los Angeles Basin.
The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC), part of the larg... more The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC), part of the larger experiment known as Elucidating the Role of Clouds-Circulation Coupling in Climate (EUREC 4 A), was held in the western Atlantic during the period 17 January-11 February 2020. This paper describes observations made during ATOMIC by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Lockheed WP-3D Orion research aircraft based on the island of Barbados. The aircraft obtained 95 h of observations over 11 flights, many of which were coordinated with the NOAA research ship R/V Ronald H. Brown and autonomous platforms deployed from the ship. Each flight contained a mixture of sampling strategies including high-altitude circles with frequent dropsonde deployment to characterize the large-scale environment, slow descents and ascents to measure the distribution of water vapor and its isotopic composition, stacked legs aimed at sampling the microphysical and thermodynamic state of the boundary layer, and offset straight flight legs for observing clouds and the ocean surface with remote sensing instruments and the thermal structure of the ocean with in situ sensors dropped from the plane. The characteristics of the in situ observations, expendable devices, and remote sensing instrumentation are described, as is the processing used in deriving estimates of physical quantities. Data archived at the National Center for Environmental Information include flight-level data such as aircraft navigation and basic thermodynamic information (NOAA Air
Cloud radars at X, Ka and W-bands have been used in the past for ocean studies of clouds, but the... more Cloud radars at X, Ka and W-bands have been used in the past for ocean studies of clouds, but the lack of suitable stabilization has limited their usefulness in obtaining accurate measurements of the velocity structure of cloud particles and the heights of cloud features. A 94 GHz (W-band) radar suitable for use on shipboard studies of clouds has been developed that is small and lightweight and can maintain the radar's beam pointing in the vertical to reduce the affects of the pitch and roll of the ship. A vertical velocity sensor on the platform allows the effects of the ship's heave to be removed from the measured cloud particle motions. Results from the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-Rex) field program on the NOAA vessel Ronald H. Brown demonstrate the improvements to the cloud measurements after the ship's motion effects are removed. The compact design of the radar also makes it suitable for use in aircraft studies. The radar is being repackaged to fit in an aft bay of a NOAA P3 aircraft to observe sea-spray profiles during ocean storms.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 1999
During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Atmospheric Radiation Me... more During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, has supported the development of several millimeter-wavelength radars for the study of clouds. This effort has culminated in the development and construction of a 35-GHz radar system by the Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Radar systems based on the NOAA ETL design are now operating at the DOE ARM Southern Great Plains central facility in central Oklahoma and the DOE ARM North Slope of Alaska site near Barrow, Alaska. Operational systems are expected to come online within the next year at the DOE ARM tropical western Pacific sites located at Manus, Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. In order for these radars to detect the full range of atmospheric hydrometeors, specific modes of operation must be implemented on them that are tuned to accurately detect the reflectivities of specific types of hydrometeors. The set of four operational modes that are currently in use on these radars are presented and discussed. The characteristics of the data produced by these modes of operation are also presented in order to illustrate the nature of the cloud products that are, and will be, derived from them on a continuous basis.
Recently, millimeter-wave cloud radars (MMCR) have been added to the extensive arrays of groundba... more Recently, millimeter-wave cloud radars (MMCR) have been added to the extensive arrays of groundbased remote sensors at the Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) sites. These 35-GHz radars have very high sensitivity that enables them to detect most visible clouds overhead (Moran et al. 1998). Unfortunately, the high sensitivity also allows the MMCR to detect insects, bits of vegetation, ash, and other small particulates that are commonly suspended in the convective boundary layer at continental locations in the warm seasons. In the remainder of this article, these various non-hydrometeor targets are referred to simply as “insects.”
10th Annual International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
The horizontal wind coniponent measiirenient s of tlie first NOAA wind profiler are coinparecl wi... more The horizontal wind coniponent measiirenient s of tlie first NOAA wind profiler are coinparecl with those of tlie WPL wind profiler located nearby at Platteville, Colorado and with those reported by the NWS rawinsonde located at Denver, Colorado. These comparisons sliow close agreeiiient among tlie instrument s.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 1991
Abstract A network of 31 radar wind profilers is being installed in the central United States by ... more Abstract A network of 31 radar wind profilers is being installed in the central United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The radars are expected to measure the vertical profile of horizontal and vertical wind starting at 500 m above the surface (AGL) and extending to about 16 km AGL. These 404.37-MHz radars can also be adapted to measure virtual temperature profiles in the lower troposphere by the radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) technique. RASS experiments were conducted using the prototype radar of the NOAA network, and results showed that virtual temperature profiles can be measured starting at 500 m AGL (the lowest height observed with this radar) and extending to 3.5–5.2 km AGL.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1995
The System Demonstration and Integration Division of the Environmental Technology Laboratory and ... more The System Demonstration and Integration Division of the Environmental Technology Laboratory and the Battlefield Environment Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have designed and built the Mobile Profiler System (MPS). The MPS is an integrated system of ground-based and satellite-borne remote sensors that measure nearly continuous wind and temperature profiles from the surface up through the troposphere. Ground-based sensors include a 924-MHz phased-array wind and temperature profiler, a four-channel microwave radiometer, a surface meteorological tower, and a balloon sounding system. Although MPS was initially developed for military applications, the nonmilitary environmental applications are numerous and significant. This paper provides an overview of the instrumentation, software networking, data processing, data integration, and near real-time data display capabilities currently incorporated into the MPS. Initial results from the first field tests (Los Angeles Free-Radical Study, 3-24 September 1993) demonstrate the ability of MPS to observe the complex meteorological structures associated with high-pollution events within the Los Angeles Basin.
Uploads
Papers by Ken Moran