RACEPAC

(Radiation-Aerosol-Cloud Experiment in the Arctic Circle)

The two research aircraft Polar 5 and Polar 6 at Inuvik airport. Picture: J. Schneider, MPIC.

The two research aircraft Polar 5 and Polar 6 at Inuvik airport. Picture: J. Schneider, MPIC.

April-May 2014

The RACEPAC project was a follow-up of the project VERDI and aimed for the investigation of arctic ice clouds, their microphysical and radiative properties, the surrounding aerosol properties and the influence of the aerosol particles on the cloud properties.

The field campaign was conducted in April/May 2014 at Inuvik (Canada), using two aircraft, namely Polar 5 and Polar 6 of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute (AWI).
The integration of the instruments in Polar 6 took place at Muskoka airport (near Toronto), the field campaign was conducted at Inuvik from April 22 until May 23, including 16 research flights with Polar 6 and 15 with Polar 5. Additionally, a ground station was operated at Tuktoyatuk, 100 km north of Inuvik.

Instruments of research group Schneider:

C-ToF-AMS

People of research group Schneider:
C. Schulz, J. Schneider (aircraft); A. Roth, F. Rubach (ground station)
The aircraft measurements were conducted in close collaboration with Heiko Bozem, IPA Mainz (Group Peter Hoor, CO + CO2 measurements)

Further activities of the Particle Chemistry Department:
- Aircraft wing probes PIP, CCP (R. Weigel, M. Klingebiel, S. Molleker, W. Schneider, S. Borrmann)
- Aircraft wing probe HALOHOLO (J. Fugal, O. Schlenczek, S. Borrmann)
- Ground-based field station at Tuktoyatuk (S. Borrmann, T. Böttger, A. Roth, F. Rubach).
Instrumentation: mini-AMS, OPC, UV-APS, MAAP, CPC, SMPS, SP-2 (M. Schnaiter, KIT), CCNC (H. Wex, TROPOS)
The container has been set up here.

Further collaboration partners:
University Leipzig (M. Wendisch, A. Ehrlich), AWI (A. Herber, R. Neuber), FZ Jülich (M. Krämer), KIT (M. Schnaiter)

Results:

Herenz, P., Wex, H., Henning, S., Kristensen, T. B., Rubach, F., Roth, A., Borrmann, S., Bozem, H., Schulz, H., and Stratmann, F.: Measurements of aerosol and CCN properties in the Mackenzie River delta (Canadian Arctic) during spring–summer transition in May 2014, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4477-4496, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4477-2018, 2018.