Development and application of an ice nucleus (IN) counter for HALO (FINCH (HALO) Fast Ice Nucleus Chamber counter onboard HALO)
Final Report Abstract
The novel instrument Frankfurt Ice Nucleation Chamber for HALO (FINCH‐HALO) was developed to measure in situ the atmospheric INP concentration onboard the German research aircraft HALO. The instrument was designed and constructed by Goethe University Frankfurt and then fully certified for operation onboard HALO. Two HALO missions, ML‐CIRRUS and ACRIDICON, were conducted in 2014 to test FINCH onboard HALO and to provide measurements of INP from the free troposphere. Due to various technical difficulties and delays with the construction and certification, the instrument was completed only shortly before the two HALO missions. Unfortunately, it was not possible to test the set‐up sufficiently before the two missions. Already during the missions several problems with the operation of FINCH became apparent. These concerned especially the clogging of the sample inlet line due to ice deposition on the inner walls of the cold inlet tubing. In the strongly variable ambient conditions with respect to outside temperature, humidity and pressure, this issue occurred frequently. After the campaigns it was also discovered that artefact particles that were produced at the aluminum surfaces of the Sterling coolers led to the detection of spurious particles that were potentially miscounted as INP. Furthermore, problems with the data acquisition led to delays or drop‐outs of the optical signal counting. Comprehensive characterizations of the FINCH instrument were performed after the two missions had taken place. While we were able to successively improve the instrument’s performance by implementing various software and hardware changes, it was not possible to recover and correct the data from the two HALO missions. Technical problems during the initial application of a newly developed instument are not uncommon when operating the instrument in a challenging environment such as operation onboard a research aircraft. After several years of improving the detailed design of the optics, the complex flow system, the cooling system, and re‐writing the entire software for instrument control and data acquisition, we now are able to operate the FINCH reliably under laboratory and field measurement conditions, and we have conducted several successful inter‐comparisons, e.g. the ice activation properties of Snomax particles were obtained. Nevertheless, even after implementing all these improvements the day‐to‐day operation of FINCH is still challenging and in its current state it is still not robust enough for reliable operation during the fast changing conditions of airborne measurements.
Publications
- Entwicklung, Aufbau und Messungen eines schnellen Eiskeimzählers, Dissertation, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, 2008
Nillius, B.
- The fast Ice Nucleus chamber FINCH, Atmospheric Research, 90(2), 180‐186
Bundke, U., Nillius, B., Jaenicke, R., Wetter, T., Klein, H., and Bingemer, H.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.02.008) - Development of a Bioaerosol single particle detector (BIO IN) for the Fast Ice Nucleus CHamber FINCH, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 3, 263‐271
Bundke, U., Reimann, B., Nillius, B., Jaenicke, R., and Bingemer, H.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-3-263-2010) - Experimental study of the role of physicochemical surface processing on the IN ability of mineral dust particles, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11, 11131‐11144
Niedermeier, D., Hartmann, S., Clauss, T., Wex, H., Kiselev, A., Sullivan, R. C., DeMott, P. J., Petters, M. D., Reitz, P., Schneider, J., Mikhailov, E., Sierau, B., Stetzer, O., Reimann, B., Bundke, U., Shaw, R. A., Buchholz, A., Mentel, T. F., and Stratmann, F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-11131-2011) - Resurgence in Ice Nuclei Measurement Research, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92, 1623
DeMott, P. J., Mohler, O., Stetzer, O., Vali, G., Levin, Z., Petters, M. D., Murakami, M., Leisner, T., Bundke, U., Klein, H., Kanji, Z. A., Cotton, R., Jones, H., Benz, S., Brinkmann, M., Rzesanke, D., Saathoff, H., Nicolet, M., Saito, A., Nillius, B., Bingemer, H., Abbatt, J., Ardon, K., Ganor, E., Georgakopoulos, D. G., and Saunders, C.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1175/2011BAMS3119.1) - A comprehensive laboratory study on the immersion freezing behavior of illite NX particles: a comparison of 17 ice nucleation measurement techniques, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15, 2489‐2518
Hiranuma, N., Augustin‐Bauditz, S., Bingemer, H., Budke, C., Curtius, J., Danielczok, A., Diehl, K., Dreischmeier, K., Ebert, M., Frank, F., Hoffmann, N., Kandler, K., Kiselev, A., Koop, T., Leisner, T., Mohler, O., Nillius, B., Peckhaus, A., Rose, D., Weinbruch, S., Wex, H., Boose, Y., DeMott, P. J., Hader, J. D., Hill, T. C. J., Kanji, Z. A., Kulkarni, G., Levin, E. J. T., McCluskey, C. S., Murakami, M., Murray, B. J., Niedermeier, D., Petters, M. D., O'Sullivan, D., Saito, A., Schill, G. P., Tajiri, T., Tolbert, M. A., Welti, A., Whale, T. F., Wright, T. P., and Yamashita, K.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2489-2015) - Intercomparing different devices for the investigation of ice nucleating particles using Snomax (R) as test substance, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15, 1463‐1485
Wex, H., Augustin‐Bauditz, S., Boose, Y., Budke, C., Curtius, J., Diehl, K., Dreyer, A., Frank, F., Hartmann, S., Hiranuma, N., Jantsch, E., Kanji, Z. A., Kiselev, A., Koop, T., Mohler, O., Niedermeier, D., Nillius, B., Rosch, M., Rose, D., Schmidt, C., Steinke, I., and Stratmann, F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1463-2015) - Single‐particle characterization of ice‐nucleating particles and ice particle residuals sampled by three different techniques, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15, 4161‐4178
Worringen, A., Kandler, K., Benker, N., Dirsch, T., Mertes, S., Schenk, L., Kastner, U., Frank, F., Nillius, B., Bundke, U., Rose, D., Curtius, J., Kupiszewski, P., Weingartner, E., Vochezer, P., Schneider, J., Schmidt, S., Weinbruch, S., and Ebert, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-4161-2015) - ACRIDICON– CHUVA Campaign: Studying Tropical Deep Convective Clouds and Precipitation over Amazonia Using the New German Research Aircraft HALO. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 97, 1885–1908
Wendisch, M., ..., and Zöger, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00255.1) - ML‐CIRRUS ‐ The airborne experiment on natural cirrus and contrail cirrus with the high‐altitude long‐range research aircraft HALO, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc.
Voigt, C., Schumann, U., Minikin, A., Abdelmonem, A., Afchine, A., Borrmann, S., Boettcher, M., Bucuchholz, B., Bugliaro, L., Costa, A., Curtius, J., Dollner, M., Dornbrack, A., Dreiling, V., Ebert, V., Ehrlich, A., Fix, A., Forster, L., Frank, F., Futterer, D., Giez, A., Graf, K., Grooss, J. U., Gross, S., Heimerl, K., Heinold, B., Huneke, T., Jarvinen, E., Jurkat, T., Kaufmann, S., Kenntner, M., Klingebiel, M., Klimach, T., Kohl, R., Kramer, M., Krisna, T. C., Luebke, A., Mayer, B., Mertes, S., Molleker, S., Petzold, A., Pfeilsticker, K., Port, M., Rapp, M., Reutter, P., Rolf, C., Rose, D., Sauer, D., Schafer, A., Schlage, R., Schnaiter, M., Schneider, J., Spelten, N., Spichtinger, P., Stock, P., Walser, A., Weigel, R., Weinzierl, B., Wendisch, M., Werner, F., Wernli, H., Wirth, M., Zahn, A., Ziereis, H., and Zoger, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00213.1) - Charakterisierung des Eiskeimzählers FINCH, Dissertation, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, 2017
Frank, F.
