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Blue flight tracks over a dark grey basemap for the Polar Winds I campaign. the tracks are over Greenland
The NASA Beechcraft B200 King Air aircraft in flight
image of all flight paths for Polar Winds I over Greenland and the related area

Polar Winds I

Data Centers

ASDC

Beginning in the fall of 2014, NASA sponsored two airborne field campaigns, collectively called Polar Winds, which designed to primarily utilize the Doppler Aerosol WiNd (DAWN) lidar to collect airborne wind measurements of the Arctic atmosphere, specifically over and off the coasts of Greenland. The primary objective of the Polar Winds campaigns were to take airborne wind and aerosol measurements of the Arctic atmosphere and Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL).

Polar Winds conducted a series of science experiments focusing on the measurement and analyses of lower tropospheric winds and aerosols associated with coastal katabatic flows, barrier winds, the Greenland Tip Jet, boundary layer circulations such as rolls and OLEs (Organized Large Eddies), and near surface winds over open water, transitional ice zones and the Greenland Ice Cap. Polar Winds also focused on satellite calibration and validation (cal/val) by conducting underflights of existing remote sensing instruments, along with practicing underflying the future Aeolus Airborne Demonstrator for the Direct-Detection Doppler Wind Lidar (ALADIN) that was launched on 22 August 2018.

Polar Winds I was based in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and flew DAWN on board the NASA King Air Utility Cargo 12B (UC-12B) from October 29 - November 13, 2014. Fourteen science flights were completed during Polar Winds I. The science objectives for these flights included numerous satellite underflights of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), CALIPSO/Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiomenter (MODIS), Aeolus simulations, and studies of various boundary layer features and interactions.

  • Validate numerical model forecasts and reanalysis characterizations of airflow in the lower atmosphere over the open oceans, land, ice sheets and transition zones of the Arctic
  • Conduct detailed investigations into the importance of dynamic features such as Arctic low level jets, barrier winds and organized large eddies to the transport and fluxes of heat and energy
  • Characterize and study the wind regime of the lower atmosphere over marginal ice zones in the Arctic, where ice drift and other processes are largely controlled by the low-level winds
  • Provide wind/aerosol observations that can be used to validate or compare with existing remote sensing platforms
PlatformsInstruments
NASA UC-12BDoppler Aerosol WiND (DAWN) Lidar 

Related Instruments

Doppler Aerosol WiNd Lidar (DAWN) The Doppler Aerosol WiNd Lidar (DAWN) is an active remote, airborne lidar that uses a pulsed, solid-state laser that operates at a wavelength of 2 micrometers to detect aerosol backscatter in the atmosphere.