UWKA: Capabilities and Plans

Al RodiFacility ManagerProf. and Head

UWKA

• Bit of history (milestones)• Where we are in the development• Where we are going

Department Facilities

• * King Air Research Aircraft

• Balloon Launch Facility

• * Wyoming Cloud Radar

• Elk Mountain Observatory

1960’s: Formation

– Natural Resources Research Institute

• Don Veal – founding head

– DoI Bureau of Reclamation funding – cloud physics/ weather modification

• Elk Mountain Observatory• Twin Beech N600UW

– Faculty recruitment • Gabor Vali• John Marwitz• Augie Auer

– Staff recruitment• Dennis Knowlton• Ken Endsley• Larry Irving

– Queen Air N10UW (1972-1981) and King Air N2UW (1977- present) – Faculty PI involvement

• DoI Bureau of Reclamation -- Seeding physical studies– High Plains Experiment (1977-81) Rainfall augmentation

– Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project (1977-1985) Snowfall augmentation

1970’s: Large projects

•Department of Atmospheric Science (1971)•Particle measurement advances (PMS probes)•Emphasis: Cloud and aerosol measurements

1980’s: transition

– King Air development: • Burec instruments

transferred to NSF• KA Base fund (NSF

Cooperative Agreement- 1987-present)

Ice crystals slides being sampled during HIPLEX and SCPP

1990-present: Further development

– Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) 95 GHz airborne cloud radar development (PI funding – NASA/ONR/NSF/UW)

– Partial NSF base funding of WCR (2004)

System operator and “4th seat” observer

Capabilities: Mission profile

•Hawker Beechcraft 200T twin-engine turboprop•Modified for 14,000 lb takeoff weight

•Certification: FAA Part 91, restricted category•Strong engines •28,000 ft (RVSM restriction)•Research flight speeds ~90 m s-1

•Mission duration 4 to 4.5 hours•Single pilot operations typical•3-4 scientific crew•Certified for operations in known icing conditions

Airframe modifications

•Nose boom•Wing-tip pods•Universal mounting ports on fuselage•Aerosol inlets•WCR radar “wing”

Single pilot operation:flight scientist can sit in the right seat of the cockpit and easily interact directly with the pilot and system scientist during flight.

Right-seat scientist

Views from copilot seat

Typical research applications include: •Cloud physics studies •Boundary-layer, turbulence/flux studies •Mesoscale dynamics •Air-sea interaction•Tropospheric profiling •Radiometric measurements•Satellite ground truth •Atmospheric chemistry•Aerosol studies •Airborne remote sensing

UWKA Capabilities

Photo by Vanda Grubisic

Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR)

http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/wcr

•The idea (late 1980’s): Install a cloud radar on a small research aircraft carrying a suite of in situ instrumentation: UW Profs. G. Vali and R. Kelly.

•Collaborative work with Prof. R. McIntosh, Univ. Mass: installation on Elk Mountain near Laramie.

WCR Milestones

•1995: WCR was built by Quadrant Engineering, Inc. (now ProSensing, Inc.)

•Equal split between the NSF, ONR and UW. •1995-2004 : support from science grants from NSF, DOD,

DOE, NASA and UW •2004 : partial support for WCR added to the 5th UW/NSF

cooperative agreement•Dave Leon: UWKA Nadir port funding and multi-beam

Doppler analysis (Leon et al, 2006: J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech; and Leon and Vali, 1998: J. Atmos. and Oceanic Tech.

•Sam Haimov: Radar scientist—calibration, user interface, developing radar data processing and analysis software, engineering improvements and WCR2 design.

WCR Milestones

Transmit Frequency 94.92 GHz

Peak Power / Duty Cycle 1.6 KW / 1 %

Pulse 100-1000 ns

Pulse Repetition Frequency (prf) 100 Hz – 20 KHz

Antennas: ▪ Side/Up ▪ Side-fore ▪ Down ▪ Down-fore

4aperture / beamwidth / polarization0.31 m / 0.7° / H, V0.31 m / 0.7° / single, linear0.46 m / 0.5° / single, linear0.38 m / 0.6° / single, linear

Antenna modes (typical): ▪ DPDD ▪ HBDD or HBDD+down ▪ profiling +side ▪ VPDD or up/side+VPDD ▪ Profiling up+down or side+down

Beams:1,2,3,4 1,3 or 1,3,21,3,22,4 or 1,2,4 1,2

Receiver channels: ▪ receiver outputs: ▪ receiver dynamic range

2mag: log; phase: linear> 70 dB

Dwell time/ Along-track sampling 30 ms / 3 – 5 m (typical)

Min. detectable signal (side-antenna)

-30 dBZ @ 1km, 250ns, 500 avrg

Resolution:▪ range▪ volume @ 1 km, 250 ns pulse

15 – 75 m37 x 12 x 15 m

Doppler velocity processor: ▪ pulse pair ▪ fft spectrum (single beam only)

1st & 2nd moments32 or 64 bins

Max unambiguous Doppler ±15.8 m/s

WCR

WCRDamiani, Vali and

Haimov, 2006: JAS, 1432–1450

[HiCU03]

Where we are we going?

• WCR-2• Airborne lidar (WCL)

– Elastic– Raman

• WCR/WCL integration• Upgraded cloud physics instruments• Upgrade flux instruments

WCR-2

• Reliability• Designed with partner ProSensing• Modulator: Pulse Systems (higher duty cycle)• W-band klystron amplifier: CPI • 5-port switching network: EMS (more antennas)• Improved polarimetric antenna: Millitech • Transmitter and receiver RF: ProSensing• Firmware and testing: ProSensing• Antenna inst, new waveguides, cabinets, FAA

approval: UW• Online winter 2007

Wyoming Cloud Lidar (WCL)

PI: Zhien Wang (UW/ATSC) •Compact, low-power, elastic polarimetric LIDAR for airborne use•http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~zwang/RSG/RSG_EL.html

Specifications: Eye-safe (UV) at 60 mUltra-pulsed Nd:YAG laser from Big Sky Laser

Technique, Inc

Transmit wavelength 355 nm

Transmit pulse length 10 ns (3 m)

Range gate resolution 3.75 m

Pulse Rep. Frequency 10 Hz

Beam Width ~ 1 cm + 0.3 mrad

Pulse Averaging (typical)

1-4 (typical)

0.1-0.4 s along track

Detector(s) 2 orthogonal PMT

(co- & cross-pol pwr)

Wyoming Cloud Lidar (WCL)

WCL

Tested early 2007Projects: •ICE-L (this fall)•VOCALS (late 2008)

View of Lidar Port

(top of fuselage looking forward)

WCL

• Cloud macrophysical properties– Ice/water discrimination

– Ice and water cloud layer boundaries

• Cloud microphysical properties– Ice clouds: water content and general effective

radius (Dge) profiles

– Water clouds: Adiabatic liquid water path (LWP), layer mean effective radius (reff) (if cloud top is detected by WCR), some drizzle properties.

– Mixed-phase clouds: ice water content and Dge profiles, LWP and reff.

Combining WCL and WCR data

Ice precipitationSupercooled Water

WCRReflectivity

WCLBackscatter

2-DC Concentration

LWC

WCLDepolarization

WCL

WCR Ze

WCLPower

WCLExtinction

IWC

Dge

WCL/WCR combined retrievals

Education and outreach

• Our educational mission– Graduate and

undergraduate education

– Outreach

Safety• Safety management system certification

– International Business Aviation Council – IS-BAO standard– Certification almost complete

Where from here?

• Raman lidar installation – Z. Wang (NSF career grant)

• Upgrade cloud physics suite– Cloud particle imager (CPI) – SPEC– 2D probes (DMT?)– FSSP (DMT?)– Liquid water/total water probes

• H2O/CO2 flux upgrade • Miniaturization

– Data system (on-line this winter)– Inertial measurement unit

From specinc.com

Where from here?

A more modest goal

Contact usAlfred Rodi, Facility Manager

rodi@uwyo.edu Jeffrey French, Project Manager

jfrench@uwyo.eduPerry Wechsler, Chief Engineer

wex@uwyo.edu Sam Haimov, Radar Scientist

haimov@uwyo.edu

Atmospheric ScienceDept. 3038

University of WyomingCollege of Engineering and Applied Science

1000 E University Ave.Laramie, WY 82071 Ph: (307) 766-3245Fax: (307) 766-2635

http://flights.uwyo.edu/n2uwhttp://www.atmos.uwyo.edu