Airborne Atmospheric Measurements with the mini Max Planck CloudKite

Clouds play a key role in the energy balance of the Earth's atmosphere and its radiation budget. The lack of detailed understanding of clouds is one of the reasons for the uncertainties in weather forecasting and climate modelling. The dynamics of clouds extend over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales from micrometers to km and milliseconds to hours. Besides Plinian volcanic eruptions, clouds show the highest turbulence level on earth. The multiscale properties of the turbulent flow in combination with moisture and temperature transport, phase transitions, and inertial particle dynamics present a challenge for modelling and parameterization.  Here we use a specially developed airborne platform, the Mini-Max-Planck-CloudKite (Mini-MPCK), to measure meteorological and cloud microphysical properties with high spatial and temporal resolution. The mini-MPCK is a 75 qm helium-filled balloon kite carrying a tether-mounted instrument for measuring atmospheric state parameters, and the density and size distribution of cloud particles. We will report on measurements from the trade wind region obtained during the EUREC4A campaign in Jan-Feb 2020.