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Clouds play an important role in controlling the radiative energy budget of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer. To quantify the impact of clouds on the radiative heating or cooling of the lower atmosphere and of the surface, vertical profile observations of thermal-infrared irradiances were collected using a radiation measurement system carried by a tethered balloon. We present 70 profiles of thermal-infrared radiative quantities measured in summer 2020 during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition and in autumn 2021 and spring 2022 in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Measurements are classified into four groups: cloudless, low-level liquid-bearing cloud, elevated liquid-bearing cloud, and elevated ice cloud. Cloudless cases display an average radiative cooling rate of about - 2 K d -1 throughout the atmospheric boundary layer. Instead, low-level liquid-bearing clouds are characterized by a radiative cooling up to - 80 K d -1 within a shallow layer at cloud top, while no temperature tendencies are identified underneath the cloud layer. Radiative transfer simulations are performed to quantify the sensitivity of radiative cooling rates to cloud microphysical properties. In particular, cloud top cooling is strongly driven by the liquid water path, especially in optically thin clouds, while for optically thick clouds the cloud droplet number concentration has an increased influence. Additional radiative transfer simulations are used to demonstrate the enhanced radiative importance of the liquid relative to ice clouds. To analyze the temporal evolution of thermal-infrared radiation profiles during the transitions from a cloudy to a cloudless atmosphere, a respective case study is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, the Balloon-bornE moduLar Utility for profilinG the lower Atmosphere (BELUGA) was deployed from an ice floe drifting in the Fram Strait from 29 June to 27 July 2020. The BELUGA observations aimed to characterize the cloudy Arctic atmospheric boundary layer above the sea ice using a modular setup of five instrument packages. The in situ measurements included atmospheric thermodynamic and dynamic state parameters (air temperature, humidity, pressure, and three-dimensional wind), broadband solar and terrestrial irradiance, aerosol particle microphysical properties, and cloud particle images. In total, 66 profile observations were collected during 33 balloon flights from the surface to maximum altitudes of 0.3 to 1.5 km. The profiles feature a high vertical resolution of 0.01 m to 1 m, including measurements below, inside, and above frequently occurring low-level clouds. This publication describes the balloon operations, instruments, and the obtained data set. We invite the scientific community for joint analysis and model application of the freely available data on PANGAEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clouds play an important role in controlling the radiative energy budget of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer. To quantify their impact on diabatic heating or cooling of the atmosphere and of the surface, vertical profile observations of thermal-infrared irradiances were collected using a tethered balloon. We present 70 profiles of thermal-infrared radiative quantities measured in summer 2020 at the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, and in autumn 2021 and spring 2022 in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Measurements are classified into four groups: cloudless, low-level liquid-bearing cloud, elevated liquid-bearing cloud, and elevated ice cloud. Cloudless cases display a radiative cooling rate of about -2Kday-1. Observed low-level liquid-bearing clouds are characterized by a radiative cooling up to -80Kday-1 in a shallow layer at cloud top. Radiative transfer simulations are performed to quantify the sensitivity of radiative cooling rates to cloud microphysical properties. In particular, cloud top cooling has a strong response to variation of the liquid water path, especially in optically thin clouds, while for optically thick clouds the cloud droplet number concentration has an increased relative importance. Two case studies with a changing cloud cover are presented to investigate the temporal evolution of radiation profiles during the transitions between (a) cloudy to cloudless and (b) low-level to elevated clouds. Additional radiative transfer simulations are used to reproduce the observed scenarios and to showcase the radiative impacts of elevated liquid and ice clouds, demonstrating the increased radiative significance of the liquid clouds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clouds play an important role in controlling the radiative energy budget of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer. To quantify their impact on diabatic heating or cooling of the atmosphere and of the surface, vertical profile observations of thermal-infrared irradiances were collected using a tethered balloon. We present 70 profiles of thermal-infrared radiative quantities measured in summer 2020 at the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, and in autumn 2021 and spring 2022 in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Measurements are classified into four groups: cloudless, low-level liquid-bearing cloud, elevated liquid-bearing cloud, and elevated ice cloud. Cloudless cases display a radiative cooling rate of about -2 K day-1. Observed low-level liquid-bearing clouds are characterized by a radiative cooling up to -80 K day-1 in a shallow layer at cloud top. Radiative transfer simulations are performed to quantify the sensitivity of radiative cooling rates to cloud microphysical properties. In particular, cloud top cooling has a strong response to variation of the liquid water path, especially in optically thin clouds, while for optically thick clouds the cloud droplet number concentration has an increased relative importance. Two case studies with a changing cloud cover are presented to investigate the temporal evolution of radiation profiles during the transitions between (a) cloudy to cloudless and (b) low-level to elevated clouds. Additional radiative transfer simulations are used to reproduce the observed scenarios and to showcase the radiative impacts of elevated liquid and ice clouds, demonstrating the increased radiative significance of the liquid clouds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes turbulent energy fluxes in the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) using measurements with a small uncrewed aircraft system (sUAS). Turbulent fluxes constitute a major part of the atmospheric energy budget and influence the surface heat balance by distributing energy vertically in the atmosphere. However, only few in situ measurements of the vertical profile of turbulent fluxes in the Arctic ABL exist. The study presents a method to derive turbulent heat fluxes from DataHawk2 sUAS turbulence measurements, based on the flux gradient method with a parameterization of the turbulent exchange coefficient. This parameterization is derived from high-resolution horizontal wind speed measurements in combination with formulations for the turbulent Prandtl number and anisotropy depending on stability. Measurements were taken during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition in the Arctic sea ice during the melt season of 2020. For three example cases from this campaign, vertical profiles of turbulence parameters and turbulent heat fluxes are presented and compared to balloon-borne, radar, and near-surface measurements. The combination of all measurements draws a consistent picture of ABL conditions and demonstrates the unique potential of the presented method for studying turbulent exchange processes in the vertical ABL profile with sUAS measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airborne observations of vertical aerosol particle distributions are crucial for detailed process studies and model improvements. Tethered balloon systems represent a less expensive alternative to aircraft to probe shallow atmospheric boundary layers (ABLs). This study presents the newly developed cubic aerosol measurement platform (CAMP) for balloon-borne observations of aerosol particle microphysical properties. With an edge length of 35 cm and a weight of 9 kg, the cube is an environmentally robust instrument platform intended for measurements at low temperatures, with a particular focus on applications in cloudy Arctic ABLs. The aerosol instrumentation on board CAMP comprises two condensation particle counters with different lower detection limits, one optical particle size spectrometer, and a miniaturized absorption photometer. Comprehensive calibrations and characterizations of the instruments were performed in laboratory experiments. The first field study with a tethered balloon system took place at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) station in Melpitz, Germany, in the winter of 2019. At ambient temperatures between - 8 and 15 ∘ C, the platform was operated up to a 1.5 km height on 14 flights under both clear-sky and cloudy conditions. The continuous aerosol observations at the ground station served as a reference for evaluating the CAMP measurements. Exemplary profiles are discussed to elucidate the performance of the system and possible process studies. Based on the laboratory instrument characterizations and the observations during the field campaign, CAMP demonstrated the capability to provide comprehensive aerosol particle measurements in cold and cloudy ABLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airborne observations of vertical aerosol particle distributions are crucial for detailed process studies and model improvements. Tethered balloon systems represent a less expensive alternative to aircraft to capture shallow atmospheric boundary layers (ABL). This study presents the newly developed cubic aerosol measurement platform (CAMP) for balloon-borne observations of aerosol particle microphysical properties. With an edge length of 30 cm and a weight of 9 kg, the cube is an environmentally robust instrument platform intended for measurements at low temperatures, with a particular focus on applications in cloudy Arctic ABLs. The aerosol instrumentation onboard CAMP comprises two condensation particle counters with different lower detection limits, one optical particle size spectrometer, and a miniaturized absorption photometer. Comprehensive calibrations and characterizations of the instruments were performed in laboratory experiments. The first field study with a tethered balloon system took place at the TROPOS research station in Melpitz, Germany, in the winter of 2019. At ambient temperatures between -10 and 15°C, the platform was operated up to 1.5 km height on 14 flights under a clear sky and cloudy conditions. The continuous aerosol observations at the ground station served as a reference for evaluating the CAMP measurements. During two subsequent balloon flights on the late morning of 15 February, descending layers with increased concentrations of nucleation mode particles were observed above a shallow well-mixed surface layer separated by a weakening temperature inversion. A subsequent increase in nucleation mode particles on the ground after the balloon flights suggests a downward mixing of the particles. Based on the laboratory instrument characterizations and the observations during the field campaign, CAMP demonstrated the capability to provide comprehensive aerosol particle measurements in cold and cloudy ABL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of physiological signals has a large impact on driver monitoring systems, since it tells something about the human state. This work addresses the recursive probabilistic inference problem in time-varying linear dynamic systems to incorporate invariance into the task of heart rate estimation from face videos under realistic conditions. The invariance encapsulates motion as well as varying illumination conditions in order to accurately estimate vitality parameters from human faces using conventional camera technology. The solution is based on the canonical state space representation of an Itô process and a Wiener velocity model. Empirical results yield to excellent real-time and estimation performance of heart rates in presence of disturbing factors, like rigid head motion, talking, facial expressions and natural illumination conditions making the process of human state estimation from face videos applicable in a much broader sense, pushing the technology towards advanced driver monitoring systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The sets of morphological characters of two nominal species in the genus Lithobius Leach, 1814, Lithobius mutabilis L. Koch, 1862 and Lithobius glacialis Verhoeff, 1937, were studied in order to test specific dissimilarity. Morphometrics were examined and analysed statistically. In addition, a comparative SEM analysis of external characters was made. Morphometrically significant differences between the species were found concerning body length, the width ratio of the head to the 5th tergite, the number of antennal articles, and the length/width proportions of certain articles (e.g. the femur) of the 15th legs of males. Because of these and several additional differences, such as in tergite surface structure, modifications to the 15th legs of males, the structure of the female gonopod claws, and between the ecological profiles, L. glacialis, which is found in the high Alps at altitudes above timberline (1300m), can be distinguished clearly from L. mutabilis. This study demonstrates another example for a cryptic species pair, a common phenomenon between lowland and alpine populations of small invertebrates. The combination of morphometrics and SEM offers a powerful methodology for resolving previously uncertain questions in the species-level taxonomy of centipedes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]