Instrumentation Aboard the University of Washington's C-131A Aircraft in SCAR-B.

All measurements were continuous unless indicated otherwise.

Navigational and Flight Characteristics

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Latitude and longitude, ground speed and horizontal winds VLF: Omega navigator Litton LTN-3000 0 to 300 m s-1 (+/- 1 m s-1 ground-speed and +/- 1° drift angle)
Latitude and longitude, ground speed and horizontal winds Global positioning system Trimble TNL-3000 global
True airspeed Variable capacitance Rosemount Model 831 BA 0 to 250 m s-1 (< 0.2%)
Heading Gyrocompass King KCS-55A 0 to 360° (+/-0.5°)
Pressure altitude Variable capacitance Rosemount Model 830 BA 150 to 1100 mb (< 0.2%)
Altitude above terrain Radar altimeter AN/APN22 0 to 6 km (< 5%)
Aircraft position and course plotter Derived from VLF/OMEGA or GPS In-house 180 km (1 km)
Angle of attack Potentiometer Rosemount Model 861 +/-23° (indicator only)

General Meteorological

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Total air temperature Platinum wire resistance Rosemount Model 102CY2CG and 414 L Bridge -60 to 40°C (< 0.1°C)
Static air temperature Reverse-flow thermometer In-house -60 to 40°C (< 0.5°C)
Dew point Cooled-mirror dew point Cambridge System Model TH73-244 -40 to 40°C (< 1°C)
Absolute humidity IR optical hygrometer Ophir Corp. Model IR-2000 0 to 10 g m-3 (~5%)
Air turbulence RMS pressure variation Meteorology Research, Inc. Model 1120 0 to 10 cm2/3 s-1 (<10%)
UV hemispheric radiation, one one downward Diffuser, filter photo-cell (0.295 - 0.390 um) Eppley Lab. Inc. Model 14042 0 to 70 W m-2 (+/- 3 W m-2)
VIS-NIR hemispheric radiation (one downward and one upward viewing) Eppley thermopile (0.3 - 3 um) Eppley Lab. Inc. Model PSP 0 to 1400 W m-2 (+/- 10 W m-2)
Surface radiative temperature IR radiometer 1.5° FOV (8 to 14 um) Omega Engineering Model OS3701 Variable: -50°C to 1000°C (~1% of reading in °K)
Video image Forward looking camera and time code Sony Hi8 camera VHS tape

Cloud Physics

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Liquid water content Hot wire resistance Johnson-Williams 0 to 2 and 0 to 6 g m-3
Liquid water content Hot wire resistance King/PMS 0 to 5 g m-3
Liquid water content; particle surface area; effective droplet radius Optical sensor Gerber Scientific Inc. PVM-100A 0.001-10 g m-3; 5-10,000 cm2m-3; 2-70 um
Size spectrum cloud particles Forward light-scattering Particle Measuring Systems FSSP-100X 2 to 47 um [*]
Size spectrum of precipitation particles Diode occultation Particle Measuring Systems OAP-200X 20 to 300 um [*]
Images of cloud particles Diode occultation imaging Particle Measuring Systems OAP-2D-C 25 to 800 um [*] (resolution 25 um)
Images of precipitation particles Diode imaging Particle Measuring Systems OAP-2D-P 100 to 3200 um [*] (resolution 100 um)

Aerosol

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Number concentrations of particles Water expansion cloud chamber General Electric Model CNC I 10 to 3 x 105 cm-3 (particles > 0.01 um) [*]
Number concentrations of particles Butanol continuous flow diffusion chamber TSI Model 3760 CNC III 10-2 - 2 x 104 cm-3 (>0.003 um)
Cloud condensation nucleus spectrometer [+] Vertical-plate continuous flow thermal diffusion cloud chamber In-house Four supersaturations, between 0.2 and 2%
Size spectrum of particles [+] 90° light-scattering Particle Measuring Systems Model LAS-200 0.5 to 11 um [*]
Size spectrum of particles Forward light-scattering Particle Measuring Systems Model FSSP-300 0.3 to 20 um [*]
Size spectrum of particles [+] 35 to 120° light-scattering Particle Measuring Systems Model ASASP-100X 0.18 to 3.0 um [*]
Size spectrum of particles Forward light-scattering Particle Measuring Systems Model FSSP-100 2 to 47 um [*]
Size spectrum of particles Passive Cavity Scattering Particle Measuring Systems Model PCASP 100-X 0.1 to 3.0 um [*]
Size spectrum of particles [+] Differential Mobility Particle Sizing Spectrometer (DMPS) In house (using TSI Model 3025 CN counter) 0.01 to 0.6 um [*]
Light-scattering coefficient Integrating nephelometer Meteorology Research, Inc. Model 1567 (modified for increased stability and faster response time) 1.0 x 10-5 to 2.5 x 10-3 m-1
Light-scattering coefficient [+] Integrating nephelometer Radiance Research 1.0 x 10-6 m-1 to 2.0 x 10-4 m-1 or 1.0 x 10-6 m-1 to 1.0 x 10-3 m-1
Light-scattering coefficient Integrating 3-[[lambda]] nephelometer with backscatter shutter MS Electron 1.0 x 10-7 to 1.0 x 10-3 m-1 for 550 and 700 nm channels. 2.0 x 10-7 to 1.0 x 10-3 m-1 for 450 nm channel.
Light-scattering coefficient (Operating continuously in the OEC on clear air and plume samples.) Integrating nephelometer UW Civil Engineering 10-7 to 10-2 m-1 at 537 nm
Particle humidification factor [+] Particle light scattering vs. humidity Mark Rood (In-house) With 40 lpm of air stream, allows RH to increase from 29-85% in 4:45
Light-extinction coefficient of smoke [+] Optical extinction cell OEC (6m path length) Waggoner Electronics 5 x 10-5 to 10-2 m-1
Light absorption and graphitic carbon Particle soot/absorption photometer Radiance Research Absorption coefficient: 10-7 to 10-2 m-1; Carbon: 0.1 ug m-3 to 10 mg m-3 (+/- 5%)
Aerosol-shape asymmetry analyzer [+] Change in light-scattering measurements with applied electric field Radiance Research Detects ~2% deviations from sphericity
Graphitic and/or Organic Carbon [+] Quartz filters Thermal optical technique Catherine Liousse >4 ug m-3 (+/- 1.6 ug m-3) for 1m3 sample

Cloud and Atmospheric Chemistry

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Particulate species [+] SO=4, NO-3, Cl-, Na+, K+, NH4+, Ca++, Mg++ Teflon filters Ion exchange chromatography Gelman Dionex 0.1 to 50 ug m-3 (for 500 liter air sample)
SO2 Pulsed fluorescence Teco SP43 (modified in-house) 1.0 ppb to 5 ppm
Hydrocarbons, CO, CO2 [+] Collected in stainless steel canisters, analysis by GC/FID U.C. Irvine Variable
Ozone Chemi-luminescence (C2H4) Monitor Labs Model 8410 A 0 to 5 ppmv (< 7 ppb)
NO, NO2, NOx Chemi-luminescence (O3) Modified Monitor Labs Model 8840 0 to 5 ppmv (~1 ppb)
CO Infrared correlation spectrometer Teco Model 48 0 to 50 ppmv (~0.1 ppmv)
CO2 Infrared correlation spectrometer Customized Teco Model 41H 0 to 1000 ppmv (~4 ppmv)
CO2 Infrared correlation spectrometer LI-COR Li-6262 0 to 300 ppmv (0.2 ppmv at 350 ppmv)
Mass of aerosol and elemental composition [+] 25 mm Nuclepore filters/PIXE Paulo Artaxo/Vanderlei Martins > 10 ug m-3; ~16 elements by PIXE
Mass of black carbon [+] 37 mm Teflon filters Paulo Artaxo/Vanderlei Martins > 1.2 ug m-3
Mercury vapor [+] Absorption tubes Paulo Artaxo/Vanderlei Martins > 0.1 ng m-3
Particle mass, black carbon (reflectance), trace elements [+] Cascade impactor, MOUDI (PIXE) Paulo Artaxo/Vanderlei Martins Stages < 0.09, 0.09, 0.18, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 1.8 and 3.2 um

Remote Sensing

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Absorption and scattering of solar radiation by clouds and reflectivity of surfaces [+] Thirteen wavelength scanning radiometer NASA-Goddard / University of Washington 13 discrete wavelengths between 0.47 to 2.3 um or 0.31 to 2.3 um
Total direct and diffuse radiation (TDDR) Radiometers Francisco Valero --
Optical backscatter [+] Nd-YAG lidar (dual-wavelength, polarization diversity) In house 0 to 15 km (7.5 m resolution)

Data Processing and Display

Parameter
 Instrument Type
 Manufacturer or Provider
 Range (and error)
Ground communication FM transceiver Motorola 200 km
In-flight data processing Microcomputer In-house, based on Motorola MVME-133A technology
In-flight data processing and display Microcomputer Sun Workstations
In-flight color graphics Microcomputer In-house, based on Motorola MVME-133A technology
Recording (digital) Microcomputer-directed cartridge recorder In-house, based on 3M technology
Recording (analog voice transcription) Cassette recorder Radio Shack
Digital printout Impact printer EPSON MX-80
Doug Burks
Last changed: 9 Apr 1996