Condensed water content (CWC) measured using a counterflow virtual impactor (CVI) with a Lyman-␣ hygrometer downstream is compared with that measured by other airborne instruments (a hot-wire probe, a PMS FSSP, and a PMS 2D-C). Results indicate that the CVI system provides a reliable measurement of CWC in both liquid-and ice-phase clouds and that the CVI measures CWC contained in both large and small hydrometeors; this means that the condensed water present in both phases and virtually all hydrometeor sizes can be measured with a single device. Small ice contents of a few milligrams per cubic meter present in cirrus clouds can also be measured by the technique.

Some of the highlights of an experiment designed to study coastal atmospheric phenomena along the California coast (Coastal Waves 1996 experiment) are described. This study was designed to address several problems, including the cross-shore variability and turbulent structure of the marine boundary layer, the influence of the coast on the development of the marine layer and clouds, the ageostrophy of the flow, the dynamics of trapped events, the parameterization of surface fluxes, and the supercriticality of the marine layer.Based in Monterey, California, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130 Hercules and the University of North Carolina Piper Seneca obtained a comprehensive set of measurements on the structure of the marine layer. The study focused on the effects of prominent topographic features on the wind. Downstream of capes and points, narrow bands of high winds are frequently encountered. The NCAR-designed Scanning Aerosol Backscatter Lidar (SABL) provided a unique opportunity to connect changes in the depth of the boundary layer with specific features in the dynamics of the flow field.An integral part of the experiment was the use of numerical models as forecast and diagnostic tools. The Naval Research Laboratory's Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Model System (COAMPS) provided high-resolution forecasts of the wind field in the vicinity of capes and points, which aided the deployment of the aircraft. Subsequently, this model and the MIUU (University of Uppsala) numerical model were used to support the analysis of the field data.These are some of the most comprehensive measurements of the topographically forced marine layer that have been collected. SABL proved to be an exceptionally useful tool to resolve the small-scale structure of the boundary layer and, combined with in situ turbulence measurements, provides new insight into the structure of the marine atmosphere. Measurements were made sufficiently far offshore to distinguish between the coastal and open ocean effects. COAMPS proved to be an excellent forecast tool and both it and the MIUU model are integral parts of the ongoing analysis. The results highlight the large spatial variability that occurs directly in response to topographic effects. Routine measurements are insufficient to resolve this variability. Numerical weather prediction model boundary conditions cannot properly define the forecast system and often underestimate the wind speed and surface wave conditions in the nearshore region.

Airborne measurements of NOx, NOy, CO, and O3 were conducted in the vicinity of a line of towering cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds (approximate altitude, 9 km) in south‐central Oklahoma, on the afternoon of June 17, 1985. NOx, NOy, and CO concentrations in the upper tropospheric outflow region of these clouds were near environmental levels. Meteorological analyses show that these clouds were located above a cold front, which prevented the entry of air from the boundary layer directly below and near the cloud. Examination of the [NOy]/[CO] and [NOx]/[CO] ratios, as well as determination of the lifting condensation level and other thermodynamic analyses, indicated that the most likely origin of the air in the cloud outflow region was the layer immediately above the top of the boundary layer, which was quite clean. It appears that very little NOy was available to be scavenged by the clouds. The results for this case suggest that the large amount of vertical trace gas transport that has been noted in previous observations and model results cannot simply be extrapolated to all convective cells. The results also show the usefulness of CO as a conserved tracer.

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Aircraft-based aerosol sampling in clouds is complicated by the generation of shatter artifact particles from aerodynamic or impaction breakup of cloud droplets and ice particles in and around the aerosol inlet. Aerodynamic breakup occurs when the Weber number of a droplet, which primarily depends on the droplet size and the magnitude of the relative motion of the droplet and the local air mass, exceeds a critical value. Impaction breakup of a droplet occurs when the droplet's impaction breakup parameter, K, which is a combination of Weber and Ohnesorge numbers, exceeds a critical value. Considering these two mechanisms, the critical breakup diameters are estimated for two aerosol inlets of different designs-a conventional forward-facing solid diffuser inlet (SDI) and a cross-flow sampling sub-micron aerosol inlet (SMAI). From numerical simulations, it is determined that cloud droplets of all sizes will experience impaction breakup in SDI, while only droplets larger than ∼16 µm will experience impaction breakup in SMAI. The relatively better in-cloud sampling performance of SMAI is because of its cone design that slows the flow just upstream of the sample tube. The slowing upstream flow, however, causes aerodynamic breakup of drops larger than ∼100 µm. The critical breakup diameters determined from analysis of field data largely validate numerical predictions. The cross-flow sampling design of SMAI is seen to ensure that shatter artifacts in the inlet are minimal even when there are a significant number of particles larger that the critical breakup size. The study results, thus, suggest that the SMAI design presents an effective approach to sample interstitial particles from aircraft.