Maldives AUAV Campaign (MAC): Observing Aerosol-Cloud-Radiation Interactions Simultaneously from Three Stacked Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAVs)

马尔代夫AUAV运动的基本科学目标是对气溶胶和云层如何调节地球反照率提供新的见解，特别强调人为气溶胶如何改变多云天空的反照率(所谓的“间接影响”)。Mac还将能够估计云对太阳的吸收，并测量吸收对气溶胶吸收量的依赖程度。观测气溶胶如何调制云微物理和云反照率的基本挑战之一是需要从云的下方、上方和内部同时观测同一云元；即测量从下方和上方向云中输送的气溶胶有多少；测量作为液滴半径函数的云滴数密度如何随着气溶胶的注入而变化；最后，观察云反照率、云内太阳吸收以及通过云向云底的太阳辐射传输对云微物理性质的变化有何反应。PIS将用三架相同的轻型自主无人机(AUAV)承担这样的研究任务，这些飞行器配备了测量气溶胶、云微物理和辐射的微型仪器。在旱季和污染季节至2006年2月和3月，他们将从马尔代夫群岛进行为期六周的试点示范任务。在马尔代夫飞行活动之前，该小组将进行定于2005年10月进行的国内飞行测试。这些航班将从位于污染严重的阿拉伯海的马尔代夫起飞。BROADER影响：MAC特别强调的是证明轻型AUAV及其微型仪器是从各个方面同时采样多云层的有效和廉价的手段。MAC现场数据将用于验证NASA的A-Train卫星星座，这些卫星几乎同时测量气溶胶、云、温度、相对湿度和辐射通量(一层中辐射的变化)。实地考察和分析阶段可能带来的教育和培训为该项目增加了一个重要的、更广泛的影响部分。最后，气候变化管理委员会解决了气候变化科学中的一个主要悬而未决的问题。

The fundamental science objective of the Maldives AUAV Campaign (MAC) is to provide new insights into how aerosols and clouds regulate the planetary albedo, with particular emphasis on how anthropogenic aerosols are modifying the albedo of cloudy skies (the so-called "indirect effect"). MAC also will be able to estimate solar absorption by clouds and to measure the dependence of that absorption on the amount of absorbing aerosols. One of the fundamental challenges of observing how aerosols modulate cloud microphysics and cloud albedo is the need to observe the same cloud element simultaneously from below, above, and inside the cloud; i.e., to measure how much aerosol is being transported to the cloud from below and from above; to measure how the cloud drop number density as a function of drop radius is changing in response to the injection of aerosols; and, finally, to observe how the cloud albedo, in-cloud solar absorption, and the transmission of solar radiation through the cloud to the cloud base is responding to the change in cloud microphysical properties. The PIs will undertake such a research mission with three identical lightweight Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAVs) outfitted with miniaturized instruments for measuring aerosols, cloud microphysics, and radiation. They will conduct a pilot demonstration mission from the Maldives Islands for a period of six weeks during the dry and polluted season through February and March, 2006. Prior to the Maldives Flight Campaign, the team will be performing domestic flight tests scheduled for October 2005. The flights will operate from the Maldives, located in the heavily polluted Arabian Sea.BROADER IMPACTS: The particular emphasis of MAC is to demonstrate that lightweight AUAVs and their miniaturized instruments are effective and inexpensive means of simultaneously sampling cloudy layers from all sides. MAC in-situ data will be used to validate NASA's A-Train constellation of satellites which perform near simultaneous measurements of aerosols, clouds, temperature, relative humidity, and radiative fluxes (the change of radiation in a layer). The potential educational and training that would result from the fieldwork and analyses phases of MAC adds an important broader impacts component to the project. Finally, MAC addresses one of the major outstanding issues in climate change science.