Descent & Ascent through Cloud
Some cloud features were similar on the descent and ascent passes, and other features were quite different.
- (top panel) LWC from PVM (red) and FSSP-100 (blue) shows two cloud penetrations,
with about 30 sec between them (below cloud base). The in-cloud times were 130 sec descending and 80 sec ascending.
The strong stable layer at cloud top is indicated by potential temperature (green).
- (panel 2) Altitude (red) shows cloud extended from about 800m to 200m.
(blue) Average size
of particles from 260X probe (40-620um) was ~100um, with two peaks of 250um in the middle.
- (panel 3) Precipitation-size particles. Concentration of particles from 260X probe (red) exceeds 1000 per liter.
(blue) Particle concentration from 2D-C probe (~100 - 800um) reach 200 per liter. Notice these
high concentrations were not observed during descent or below cloud base.
- (bottom panel) Cloud droplets from FSSP-100. (red) Concentration ~100 cm-3 during descent and
~50 cm-3 on the ascent portion. (blue) Average droplet size ~20um on both descent and ascent.
