The flights yesterday on Friday and today on Saturday, 16.09.2023 lead HALO to the Pacific. Target region is a filament with airmasses from the monsoon, which is moving rapidly towards the east. Thereby, the filament is stretched and distorted, and mixes partly with the surrounding air masses. To investigate the composition of the filament and the mixing process, the same air masses are probed twice with the instruments onboard HALO today on Friday and tomorrow on Saturday. To meet the air masses at the optimal time, the flights each start in the early afternoon and last until the late evening. Thereby, timing is important!
The GLORIA observations provide insight into the vertical and horizontal distribution of many long- and short-lived trace gas species, which are contained in the filament. The instruments by the other project partners furthermore probe the particulate and chemical composition of the air masses along the flight track and allow to study aerosols and mixing processes with high precision. The measurements by the instruments onboard HALO thereby provide the prerequisites to study the effects of monsoon air on the surrounding air masses.
The campaign proceeds rapidly. After the flight on Saturday, another local flight from Anchorage is planned for the next week. On Friday, the backward transfer flight starts via Greenland to Germany.