Publication
Modified ultrafast thermometer UFT-M and temperature measurements during Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) |
Kumala, W., Haman, K. E., Kopec, M. K., Khelif, D., and Malinowski, S. P. |
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques3, 2013, 2043-2054, 10.5194/amt-6-2043-2013, 2013 |
A modified UFT-M version of the ultrafast airborne thermometer UFT, aimed at in-cloud temperature measurements, was designed for the Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) field campaign. Improvements in its construction resulted in the sensor's increased reliability, which provided valuable measurements in 15 of the 17 flights. Oversampling the data allowed for the effective correction of the artefacts resulting from the interference with electromagnetic transmissions from on-board avionic systems and the thermal noise resulting from the sensor construction. The UFT-M records, when averaged to the 1.4 and 55 m resolutions, compared to the similar records of a thermometer in a Rosemount housing, indicate that the housing distorts even low-resolution airborne temperature measurements. Data collected with the UFT-M during the course of POST characterise the thermal structure of stratocumulus and capping inversion with the maximum resolution of ~1 cm. In this paper, examples of UFT-M records are presented and discussed.