King Air airplane in background with King Air Research Aircraft: Atmospheric Science

UWKA Request Guidance

 

University of Wyoming King Air Overview

The University of Wyoming’s Beechcraft King Air 200T (UWKA) is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft instrumented to support various research missions, notably in cloud physics and boundary layer processes. The aircraft has an endurance up to 4 hours and a range of 1,800 nautical miles. The flight ceiling is 28,000 feet and the maximum payload is 1,850 lbs. In service since 1977, the aircraft is operated by the Donald L. Veal Research Flight Center within the UW Department of Atmospheric Science.

Configuration: Airborne research platform
Number of available systems: 1

University of Wyoming King Air and Airborne Instrumentation Contact

Dr. Jeff French / jfrench@uwyo.edu / (307) 766-4143

University of Wyoming King Air facility

Operations

Estimated duration of each flight: Typically up to 4 hours maximum, depending on payload

Number of scientific observers on each flight: 1-2, limited seating

Airborne Instrumentation and Measurements

Each research payload is unique and will typically consist of some combination of UWYO and user-supplied instrumentation. The tables in this document list available airborne sensors and measurements. Please note that different instruments require differing levels of support. Instrumentation is therefore separated into the following categories:

Standard Instrumentation: The UWyo King Air’s standard measurements, which are provided on all projects, include time and location, aircraft and atmospheric state parameters, and flight log files. Complete information on variables and instruments can be found here. Standard measurement data made available after quality control include:

3-D position, ground velocity, orientation, airspeed, flow angles, altitude,
pressure, winds, temperature, water vapor, liquid water

Instrumentation by Request: Before requesting instruments in this section, please consider that some require additional resources and may need special preparation, maintenance, or data handling and processing. The number and/or combination of instruments may exceed UWYO’s personnel and/or hardware resource limits. In addition, some instruments are mutually exclusive and may result in the inability to request others in the list. Please indicate requested instruments in the following tables.

User-supplied InstrumentationAll user-supplied equipment must meet Univeristy of Wyoming safety and design specifications. 

Instruments by Request

Instrument Available Measurement
Cloud Measurements
Rosemount 871FA Icing Rate
DMT LWC-301 Cloud Liquid Water
DMT Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP)

Cloud Particle Size Distribution (2 - 50 μm)

Total Concentration

Nevzorov TWC-LWC probe

Cloud Liquid Water

Total Mass Content

Canister-based Measurements

The UWYO King Air has four PMS-style wing canisters; therefore NO MORE THAN FOUR instruments may be selected as mission critical and/or low priority.

SPEC High-Volume Precipitation Spectrometer

Hydrometeor particle imagery (150 μm resolution)

 

SPEC Two-Dimensional Stereo particle imager (2DS)

Hydrometeor particle imagery (10 µm resolution)

Hydrometeor size distribution

Measurements available from two orthogonal orientations

DMT Two-Dimensional Greyscale Cloud Imaging Probe (CIP)

Hydrometeor particle imagery (25 µm resolution)

Hydrometeor size distribution

Measurements available at three levels of greyscale sensitivity

PMS Two-Dimensional Precipitation particle imager (2DP)

Hydrometeor particle imagery (200 µm resolution)

Hydrometeor size distribution

Air Chemistry Measurements
LI-COR LI-7000 Closed-Path Gas Analyzer CO2 & H2O concentrations
LI-COR LI-7500 Open-Path Gas Analyzer CO2 & H2O concentrations
Picarro Gas Analyzer CH4 & H2O concentrations
Aerosol Measurements
DMT Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (PCASP-100X; two available)

Aerosol particle size distribution (0.1 – 3.0 µm diameter)

Total particle concentrations

TSI 3010 CPC Cloud nuclei concentration (>15 nm)
TSI 3025 CPC Ultra-fine nuclei concentration (>5 nm)
TSI 3563 Nephelometer

Light scattering extinction coefficient at 450, 550, and 700 nm

50 nm bandwidth on each wavelength

UWyo CCNC-100A cloud concentration nuclei sampler

IR Radiometric Surface Temperature

Secondary Surface Temperature Measurement

Precludes downward lidar

Other

Digital Video Recording

Standard forward-looking video is supplied for every project

Down-looking with date/time stamp may be requested by checking this box

Video is composite of 1 frame per second images

Cabin Pressure

Ambient cabin pressure

Recommended when in-cabin aerosol or gas phase measurements are required

MRI Universal Indicated Turbulence System Intensity of turbulence in inertial subrange

The above list summarizes base facility instruments, click here for a more detailed list of measurements and derived parameters.

Data Files and Distribution

A basic data analysis center with LAN connection to the UWYO computers and access to the Internet will be provided in the field by the University of Wyoming. Support, if requested, may include real-time communications links to the aircraft via chat and real-time display of selected variables. Access to forecasting tools and preparations of operational forecasts are not usually included as part of the service.

Data are provided at 1 Hz rates. High-rate processing is available for some instruments. Initial preliminary data will be made available during the project. Following the conclusion of the experiment, the fully processed dataset will be made available. A Level 2 user file, complying with RAF Nimbus NetCDF conventions will be disseminated, including all standard measurements and data from selected instruments. Further information on data files and instruments can be found here. These files can be visualized via the NCAR AEROS software package (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/software/aeros).

UWKA data will be made publicly available once the data are quality controlled. If a PI wants to have exclusive access to these data for the first year, s/he has to officially request such a restriction via email from the University of Wyoming Flight Facility Manager (jfrench@uwyo.edu) eight weeks prior to the start of an experiment.)