Airborne in-situ cloud particle data taken on board the INCAS King Air research aircraft during CELLO-ORCESTRA (Cabo Verde, August-September 2024)

This airborne in-situ cloud probe data includes data from the CAPS and Hawkeye combination cloud probes mounted on the underwing pylons of the aircraft. Specifically, the dataset contains scattering probe data (CAS, FCDP) and optical array probe data (2D-S horizontal and vertical channel, CIP) from the CELLO-ORCESTRA campaign in Cabo Verde in August-September 2024.

CELLO is a Norwegian initiative that uses the Romanian INCAS King Air research aircraft to perform calibration and validation (cal/val) flights to quantify the quality of ESA’s/JAXA’s EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Explorer) satellite. EarthCARE (launched in May 2024) offers the unique and powerful collocation of an atmospheric lidar, cloud profiling radar, multi-spectral imager and broadband radiometer to provide unprecedented data sets to advance our understanding of the role of clouds in the climate system. To fulfill EarthCARE’s mission objectives, cal/val efforts are of paramount importance to characterize and quality-check its cloud products.