Research Summaries

Back NPS/CIRPAS Support of Office of Naval Research Airborne Research Objectives

Fiscal Year 2011
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies
Investigator(s) Bluth, Robert T.
Jonsson, Haflidi H.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The Naval Postgraduate School's (NPS) Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) submits this proposal to support the airborne research objectives of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in the year 2010. Two ONR research groups have requested the support of CIRPAS' personnel, instrumentation, and aircraft. CIRPAS independently proposes the third one. These projects are:
1. Effects of condensation nuclei on cloud-and drizzle formation in marine stratocumulus: This is a month long effort in Monterey, CA, to study how condensation nuclei of different composition and different size change the conditions required for stratus formation and development of drizzle in marine stratus. Of interest is on one hand whether organic particles of various composition have varying critical super-saturation, and thus possibly influence cloud height, or whether particle size dominates their nucleation efficiency rendering composition irrelevant. A second objective is to address the question of whether giant nuclei play a role in drizzle formation in Marine Stratus. The support is requested by Professor John Seinfeld, of CalTech his associates and students.
2. The relationship between the chemical composition of aerosol particles in the marine boundary layer and the chemical composition of cloud: This will be a month long operation in Monterey, CA, to support Dr. Armin Sorooshian of U. of Arizona in his studies of chemistry in the Marine boundary layer. Chemical reactions are thought to occur in the presence of liquid water after clouds form and sometimes alter the chemical balance of the cloud droplets such that the aerosol particles that remain after cloud evaporation are entirely different from the origin aerosol the cloud initially grew from.
3. New techniques in cloud physics research: This involves two weeks of flying out of Marina, CA to test new instrumentation for delivery of giant nuclei into clouds. CIRPAS is building a salt dispenser that will be used to seed the California stratocumulus and will use a new droplet spectrometer, along with the traditional instruments, to evaluate its performance and potential. Support for this experiment is requested by CIRPAS and is intended as a tune-up, or a pilot study, for the CalTech mission (1. Above).
Keywords Meteorology Aerosol Optical Depth Visibility
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal