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Measuring cloud supercooled liquid water

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 On 21 February it was raining and we did radiosonde launches together with the cloud sensor to measure the amount of the supercooled liquid water content in the clouds. At temperatures between 0ºC and -15ºC most clouds are composed of supercooled water droplets. Between -15ºC and -40ºC clouds typically made of a mixture of ice crystals and supercooled water droplets. The presence of supercooled liquid water in clouds occurs because of the relatively low amounts of cloud ice nuclei. At temperatures below -40ºC ice will form spontaneously (without ice nuclei).  In Antarctica, satellite observations showed an important presence of mixed-phase clouds containing supercooled liquid water. The amount of the supercooled water in cloud is important for the formation of precipitation and also cloud radiative forcing at the surface (how much clouds cools and/or warm the surface by reflecting shortwave radiation and emitting longwave radiation).  Supercooled liquid water in clouds pose icing pr
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Crevasses on Nelson Island glacier

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Internet was very limited this season and I had to pause with my blog updates.. So with a bit of delay I continue updating my blog now.  On 20 February we went to the Nelson Island glacier. As many other glaciers around, including on King George Island, this glacier has been melting a lot during the last several decades leading to a big increase in the glacial lakes area . Our goal was to sample surface snow for analysis of the stable water isotopes and snow chemical and microbiological composition and if possible to take samples from a snowpit to look back in time. We arrived to the Nelson Island by Zodiac boat in the morning and had only five hours to do the work.  Photo: Nelson Island glacier arrival beach. 20 February 2023. ©Irina Gorodetskaya The approach to the glacier was along the rocky shore, climbing up snow patches and crossing melting water streams.  Photo: Meltwater stream from the Nelson Island glacier traversing a snow front. ©Irina Gorodetskaya When we arrived to the
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Looking for snow... in the sky and on the glaciers

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    It may sound weird but we are in Antarctica and there is no snow.. While common on the South Shetland Islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula (we are only 62ºS) to have temperatures above zero in summer, there is a tendency   over the last 50 years of warmer temperatures   and more melt. Yes, there was a short pause of warming at the Peninsula in the beginning of 21 st   century due to nature climate variability but   after this period the warming trend came back even stronger . And there are   more frequent, stronger and longer lasting extreme warm events . Our study of atmospheric rivers includes their impact on warm temperatures and surface snow melt in the Antarctic Peninsula. And they also tend to bring a lot of rainfall instead of snowfall as temperatures here are already close to 0ºC.   One year ago, on 7-8 February 2022 several northern Antarctic Peninsula stations, including King Sejong where we are now, showed new record high temperatures.  There was a lot of melt all ov
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Gale and rain after sunshine

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 8 February, Wednesday. King Sejong Today we rushed to finish our precipitation radar installation just before the storm started.. It was a long day.. Very quiet and beautiful in the morning.. Even sunny.. Lots of ice in the bay coming from the nearby glacier and moved by the easterly winds.. Then suddenly the wind started to get stronger in the afternoon.. It started raining.. And in the evening we got gale winds up to 25 m/s..  Photo:   Finished installation of the MRR-PRO radar just before the storm.. It will show us vertical profile of rain and snow. On the photo: Claudio&Irina.  The MRR-Pro radar measurements are collaboration with  Vincent Favier ( IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France )  and project  ANR-ARCA .  Photo: Icy bay in front of King Sejong station on 8 February. The ice was calved from the nearby glacier Fourcade. ©Irina Gorodetskaya We were lucky to make it to Escudero to retrieve our equipment on Monday.. Today it would be impos
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Wet and cold arrival to King Sejong

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  After the long quarantine and waiting.. the arrival to King George Island and transfer to King Sejong station happened extremely fast until we got into the waves. Boarded the plane in Punta Arenas, crossed Drake passage in 2 hours, landed at Marsh airport on King George Island, out of the plane, to the bay, put on the mustang suits (a warm overall), jump into the Zodiacs boats and started crossing the bay. The waves were getting higher and higher and the pilot was moving very slowly. Approaching King Sejong, lots of small ice floes appeared and our small boat was manoeuvring between them. Splashes of water into the face and sometimes a real cold shower.. Cold hands holding the rope.. And next to our boat little penguins playing in the water..  Photo: Traversing the bay from King George Island airport to King Sejong station. ©Irina Gorodetskaya Photo: Korean Antarctic station King Sejong   ©Irina Gorodetskaya After meeting with the station manager and explanation of the rules for the
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Flight to Antarctica rescheduled.. Atmospheric river forecasted..

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Our project  APMAR2 -  Antarctic Peninsula precipitation and surface Mass and energy balance: what is the role of Atmospheric Rivers?   has started with the first leg – arriving to southern Chile, Punta Arenas, the gateway to Antarctica.  Photo: Night clouds over Strait of Magellan and Punta Arenas. 29 January 2023. ©Irina Gorodetskaya The project is funded by  PROPOLAR  - Portuguese Polar Program with support by  KOPRI  – Korea Polar Research Institute and  INACH  – Chilean Antarctic Institute. APMAR2 team is Irina Gorodetskaya  (researcher at  CIIMAR  and project PI), Claudio Durán-Alarcón  (researcher at  CESAM /University of Aveiro), and Sang-Jong Park (researcher at  KOPRI ). We are all heading to the Korean King Sejong station on King George Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula.  APMAR2 project is a continuation of the last year projects  APMAR and TULIP  (oh yes.. Antarctic Tulips do exist:), about which you can read in  this blog .  We will install MRR-Pro radar to measure snow
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