PINE monitors ice-nucleating particles at the Košetice Observatory (CZ)

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) are a minor part of atmospheric aerosol particles and play a key role in cloud and precipitation formation processes in the atmosphere. Therefore, it is of importance to investigate ice nucleation processes and to perform long-term observations of the atmospheric INP abundance and variability.
The European ACTRIS infrastructure, in which the IMK-AAF has a leading role in implementing and operating the TC CIS (Topical Centre for Cloud In situ Measurements), lists INP measurements as one of the important atmospheric variables to be measured. Within ACTRIS, IMK-AAF started to collaborate with the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, Department of Aerosols Chemistry and Physics in Prague, which uses the National Atmospheric Observatory in Košetice for long-term atmospheric measurements.  Košetice represents a unique rural background site in central Europe to study the sources and the variability of INPs, which are now measured over 2 months with the new mobile cloud expansion experiment PINE. During this time period, PINE will provide continuous INP data in the temperature range between about -15°C and -30°C with a time resolution of 5min. For the interpretation of the data, we will also make use of the comprehensive data set from aerosol characterization instruments operated at the National Atmospheric Observatory in Košetice.

Weekly updated plots can be found here.