3D-CAPE-K

3D Cloud Aerosol Precipitation Experiment at kennaook Cape Grim

30 June 2025 - 15 October 2025

Lead Scientist: Alain Protat

Observatory: AMF (ARM Mobile Facility 2) - KCG

The objective of the 3D-CAPE-k campaign is to complement the AMF-2 CAPE-k project by deploying complementary scanning, fixed pointing angle, and in situ aerosol, cloud and precipitation remote-sensing instruments during the last six months of CAPE-k. These instruments will provide a 3D context for the AMF-2 vertically pointing observations collected at the kennaook Cape Grim (KCG) site and will capture a portion of the life cycle of the clouds before and after the passage over the AMF-2 vertical column. Taken all together, these 3D cloud measurements will be used to 1) investigate how the vertical profiles of aerosol and cloud properties are representative of the broader area and how these properties evolve during the portion of the cloud life cycle captured by the scanning instruments, 2) quantify how accurate the cloud fraction derived with assumptions from vertically pointing observations are compared with direct 3D cloud fraction measurements, 3) evaluate cloud fraction and liquid water path in the Australian forecast model (ACCESS-C), and 4) evaluate aerosol and cloud products from the ESA/JAXA Earth Cloud Aerosol Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission using the scanning measurements, offering more chances of exact collocation, thereby complementing the statistical approach we are planning to employ with AMF-2 observations for that same purpose.