Field Study

From the 19th of March until the end of April, the CAINA (Cloud-Aerosol Interactions in a Nitrogen-dominated Atmosphere) field campaign will take place at both Cabauw and Lutjewad in the middle and north of the Netherlands respectively. Instruments from 9 Dutch and international partner institutes will be measuring atmospheric pollutants, wind fields, and clouds. With these observations the processes that govern concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei, effects of nitrogen pollutants on cloud microphysics, and cloud processing of aerosols will be studied. In addition to the advanced in-situ and remote sensing instruments that will be placed at Cabauw and Lutjewad research stations, flights will be done with TROPOS’ (Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research) ACTOS (Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System) near Lutjewad. ACTOS is carried as an external cargo 140 m below a slow-flying helicopter, from where be immersed into individual clouds and conduct measurements in the cloudy boundary layer. Furthermore, IMT-Nord will do flights with drones at Cabauw to investigate vertical profiles of VOCs around the measurement tower. The field measurements will be interpreted with the help of controlled cloud chamber experiments in the dynamic AIDA cloud chamber, and with the use of high-resolution, cloud-resolving modelling.

In addition to the field campaign, long-term measurements over a year with a smaller number of instruments will also be conducted at Cabauw and Lutjewad.