{"id":3186,"date":"2022-05-16T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/?p=3186"},"modified":"2022-05-16T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T08:04:09","slug":"care-c-campaign-with-the-environmental-physics-group-of-the-university-of-tubingen-at-the-unmanned-systems-research-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/?p=3186","title":{"rendered":"CARE-C campaign with the Environmental Physics group of the University of T\u00fcbingen at the Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\nEnvironmental Physics group from the University of T\u00fcbingen<\/a>,\nGermany,  visited Cyprus, in order to\ncontinue the scientific flight campaign that started two years ago, and was\ninterrupted due to the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The\ngroup arrival coincided with an intensive, prolonged dust event  in Cyprus, with increased interest from an environmental\npoint of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign occurred\nin the framework of the ACTRIS-IMP project (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases\nResearch Infrastructure, http:\/\/www.actris.net\/), through which interested\nresearch groups from around the globe can utilize the CARE-C,\nThe Cyprus Institute<\/a>, (www.cyi.ac.cy\/) infrastructure in Orounda for\nunmanned aerial operations. The Environmental Physics group (www.umphy.de) from\nthe University of T\u00fcbingen is the first one to use the CARE-C\u2019s Unmanned\nSystems Research Laboratory (USRL) premises as a transnational access point\nunder the ACTRIS-IMP project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USRL\n(Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory, usrl.cyi.ac.cy) provides support for the\nflight operations, as well as on scientific support. In particular, scientific\nflights with two UCASS (Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System) on board a\nURSL fixed-wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS), were performed inside and above\nthe dust layer. These airborne observations will be used for inter-comparison\npurposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEnvironmental Physics group from the University of T\u00fcbingen adds both\nmulticopter and fixed-wing UAS measurements of atmospheric dust, atmospheric\nelectrical charges, thermodynamics, and turbulence. While the multicopters\ncover the lowest 500 m of the atmosphere, the flights with the fixed-wing UAS\nof type MASC-3 flights are alternating with the URSL aeroplane and probe the\natmosphere up to 5500 m, in order to observe the temporal development of the\nlower atmosphere throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Saharan\ndust episodes over the Mediterranean, particles are typically transported from\nNorth Sahara  to Cyprus within the lower\nhalf of the troposphere. Saharan dust plays an important role in climatology\n(e.g. diming sun light, changing albedo of the atmosphere and surfaces) and as\nfertilizer in ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest. Dust has an impact on air\nquality and thus has a negative impact on health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saharan events\nare also observed in Central Europe  e.g.\nduring 2022, large amounts of Sarahan dust affected South-West Germany already\ntwice for several days each, degraded air quality, caused hazy skies and\ncovered all kind of outdoor surfaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measurement\nflights in Cyprus from 6th to 13th April, 2022, show the development of the\nlower half of the troposphere with respect to wind, temperature, water vapour,\nand the vertical distribution of dust particles over the day. For example,\nduring the first research flight on 6th<\/sup> April, the PM10 data\n(counting all particles smaller than 10 microns) shows several regimes of dust:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below 1500 m\ndown to the ground, the dust was well mixed. Here we expect a mixture of\nlocally produced dust from Cyprus and down-mixed Saharan dust. Above 1500 m,\nthe data show first a decrease and then an almost linear increase of dust\nparticle concentrations smaller than 10 microns. This indicates that part of\nthe Saharan dust is mixed downwards. Since the atmosphere was mainly thermally\nstably stratified, the downward mixing was caused by small-scale and\nintermittent turbulence only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A distinct\nSaharan dust layer (or Saharan air layer SAL), with quite sharp upper and lower\nlimits, was observed between 1800 and 2500 m. Above the Saharan dust layer, the\ntroposphere was almost clean, showing very low dust concentrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of the upcoming data analysis is to quantify in detail the vertical transport processes of dust in the troposphere. The two sources of dust are 1) the land surface from which dust is taken up by convection and strong turbulence into the lower atmosphere, and 2) the Saharan dust layer from which dust is transported not only horizontally by wind but also vertically by small-scale turbulence. In order to distinguish Saharan dust from locally produced dust in the ABL, the size distributions of dust particles will be examined at the various altitudes and within the different atmospheric layers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\nThis activity has been supported by the ACTRIS-IMP project (2020-2023) which has received funding from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 871115. \n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Environmental Physics group from the University of T\u00fcbingen, Germany,  visited Cyprus, in order to continue the scientific flight campaign that started two years ago, and was interrupted due to the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The group arrival coincided with an intensive, prolonged dust event  in Cyprus, with increased interest from an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyi-news","category-emme-care","category-technology","category-18","category-17","category-5","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3186"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3191,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions\/3191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usrl.cyi.ac.cy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}