ORCESTRA campaign to validate EarthCARE satellite – station maintenance in Mindelo
Mindelo, Cabo Verde,
10.08.2024
– Henriette Gebauer
As CLARINET (CLoud and Aerosol Remote sensing for EarThcare), TROPOS is part of the ORCESTRA (Organized Convection and EarthCare Studies over the Tropical Atlantic) campaign, which explores the tropical Atlantic and contributes to the validation of satellites as EarthCARE in August and September 2024, using aircraft observations and measurements on the research vessel Meteor.
CLARINET provides reference measurements from our stationary ground-based ACTRIS station at the OSCM (Ocean Science Center Mindelo) at Mindelo. To ensure the availability of the measurements and to fix problems immediately, the station will be permanently manned with two scientists from TROPOS, staying at the OSCM for two weeks each. Already before the official start of ORCESTRA, maintenance at the instruments was carried out and existing problems in the data transfer from the devices to the server were fixed. Missing nighttime measurements due to power blackouts or internet breakdowns on the island are also an issue to be coped with.
Fortunately, on 10 August, the instruments were working well when a great dust plume arrived just on time for the start of the campaign. Saharan dust up to heights of 6 km with small clouds at the top of the dust layer provided good conditions for the first research flight of the MAESTRO (Mesoscale organisation of tropical convection) sub campaign. Starting from Sal on one of the islands close-by, the scientists crossed the bay of Mindelo close to the OSCM and the Meteor, which is waiting to leave the harbor. Despite attentively watching the sky together with a colleague from ESA, who visited our station at OSCM at that day, the aircraft was not visible by eye.
Like many of the ORCESTRA people, CLARINET is also eagerly awaiting the arrival of the delayed container ship, which should bring our new radar as well as equipment and food for the Meteor. Unfortunately, the radar cannot be set up anymore in time for this campaign. In the meantime, while everyone is waiting and all the instruments are doing well, from time to time, interested visitors from the other sub campaigns come to OSCM to have a look at the station and the CLARINET team also got a tour on the Meteor.
