Articles | Volume 14, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-239-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-239-2021
Research article
 | 
14 Jan 2021
Research article |  | 14 Jan 2021

Understanding balloon-borne frost point hygrometer measurements after contamination by mixed-phase clouds

Teresa Jorge, Simone Brunamonti, Yann Poltera, Frank G. Wienhold, Bei P. Luo, Peter Oelsner, Sreeharsha Hanumanthu, Bhupendra B. Singh, Susanne Körner, Ruud Dirksen, Manish Naja, Suvarna Fadnavis, and Thomas Peter

Related authors

Strong day-to-day variability of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL) in August 2016 at the Himalayan foothills
Sreeharsha Hanumanthu, Bärbel Vogel, Rolf Müller, Simone Brunamonti, Suvarna Fadnavis, Dan Li, Peter Ölsner, Manish Naja, Bhupendra Bahadur Singh, Kunchala Ravi Kumar, Sunil Sonbawne, Hannu Jauhiainen, Holger Vömel, Beiping Luo, Teresa Jorge, Frank G. Wienhold, Ruud Dirkson, and Thomas Peter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14273–14302, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14273-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14273-2020, 2020
Short summary
Balloon-borne measurements of temperature, water vapor, ozone and aerosol backscatter on the southern slopes of the Himalayas during StratoClim 2016–2017
Simone Brunamonti, Teresa Jorge, Peter Oelsner, Sreeharsha Hanumanthu, Bhupendra B. Singh, K. Ravi Kumar, Sunil Sonbawne, Susanne Meier, Deepak Singh, Frank G. Wienhold, Bei Ping Luo, Maxi Boettcher, Yann Poltera, Hannu Jauhiainen, Rijan Kayastha, Jagadishwor Karmacharya, Ruud Dirksen, Manish Naja, Markus Rex, Suvarna Fadnavis, and Thomas Peter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15937–15957, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15937-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15937-2018, 2018
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Instruments and Platforms
Development of a portable laser-flash photolysis Faraday rotation spectrometer for measuring atmospheric total OH reactivity
Bo Fang, Nana Wei, Weixiong Zhao, Nana Yang, Hao Zhou, Heng Zhang, Jiarong Li, Weijun Zhang, Yanyu Lu, Zhu Zhu, and Yue Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1243–1256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1243-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1243-2025, 2025
Short summary
Surface distributions and vertical profiles of trace gases (CO, O3, NO, NO2) in the Arctic wintertime boundary layer using low-cost sensors during ALPACA-2022
Brice Barret, Patrice Medina, Natalie Brett, Roman Pohorsky, Kathy S. Law, Slimane Bekki, Gilberto J. Fochesatto, Julia Schmale, Steve R. Arnold, Andrea Baccarini, Maurizio Busetto, Meeta Cesler-Maloney, Barbara D'Anna, Stefano Decesari, Jingqiu Mao, Gianluca Pappaccogli, Joel Savarino, Federico Scoto, and William R. Simpson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1163–1184, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1163-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1163-2025, 2025
Short summary
Advances in an OH reactivity instrument for airborne field measurements
Hendrik Fuchs, Aaron Stainsby, Florian Berg, René Dubus, Michelle Färber, Andreas Hofzumahaus, Frank Holland, Kelvin H. Bates, Steven S. Brown, Matthew M. Coggon, Glenn S. Diskin, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Christopher M. Jernigan, Jeff Peischl, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Nell B. Schafer, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Patrick R. Veres, Carsten Warneke, Eleanor M. Waxman, Lu Xu, Kristen Zuraski, Andreas Wahner, and Anna Novelli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 881–895, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-881-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-881-2025, 2025
Short summary
The ASK-16 motorized glider: an airborne eddy covariance platform to measure turbulence, energy, and matter fluxes
Inge Wiekenkamp, Anna Katharina Lehmann, Alexander Bütow, Jörg Hartmann, Stefan Metzger, Thomas Ruhtz, Christian Wille, Mathias Zöllner, and Torsten Sachs
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 749–772, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-749-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-749-2025, 2025
Short summary
Development of a Peltier-based chilled-mirror hygrometer, SKYDEW, for tropospheric and lower-stratospheric water vapor measurements
Takuji Sugidachi, Masatomo Fujiwara, Kensaku Shimizu, Shin-Ya Ogino, Junko Suzuki, and Ruud J. Dirksen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 509–531, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-509-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-509-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

ANSYS, F.: User's Guide, ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA, available at: http://www.ansys.com (last access: 25 August 2019), 2012. a, b, c
Barret, E. W., Herndon, L. R., and Carter, H. J.: A preliminary note on the measurement of water vapor content in the middle stratosphere, J. Atmos. Sci., 6, 367–368, 1949. a
Barret, E. W., Herdon, L. R., and Carter, H. J.: Some Measurements of the Distribution of Water Vapor in the Stratosphere1, Tellus, 2, 302–311, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1950.tb00340.x, 1950. a
Bian, J., Pan, L. L., Paulik, L., Vömel, H., Chen, H., and Lu, D.: In situ water vapor and ozone measurements in Lhasa and Kunming during the Asian summer monsoon, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L19808, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012gl052996, 2012. a
Brabec, M., Wienhold, F. G., Luo, B. P., Vömel, H., Immler, F., Steiner, P., Hausammann, E., Weers, U., and Peter, T.: Particle backscatter and relative humidity measured across cirrus clouds and comparison with microphysical cirrus modelling, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 9135–9148, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-9135-2012, 2012. a
Download
Short summary
Balloon-borne frost point hygrometers are crucial for the monitoring of water vapour in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. We found that when traversing a mixed-phase cloud with big supercooled droplets, the intake tube of the instrument collects on its inner surface a high percentage of these droplets. The newly formed ice layer will sublimate at higher levels and contaminate the measurement. The balloon is also a source of contamination, but only at higher levels during the ascent.
Share