Ground-based Remote Sensing of Aerosol, Clouds, Dynamics, and Precipitation in Antarctica - First results from a one-year campaign at Neumayer Station III in 2023

Novel ground-based remote sensing observations of aerosols and clouds have been carried out in Antarctica at the German Neumayer Station III (70.67S, 8.27W) for a whole year. The deployment of the mobile exploratory platform OCEANET-Atmosphere brought full ACTRIS aerosol and cloud profiling capabilities next to meteorological, radiation, and air chemistry in-situ observations at the Antarctic station. Neumayer III is currently the only station on a floating ice shelf that is manned throughout the year, providing excellent conditions for studying atmospheric effects on the Antarctic ice shelf. For that deployment the standard instrumentation of OCEANET-Atmosphere (PollyXT Raman polarization Lidar, a HATPRO microwave Radiometer, a Cimel sun and lunar photometer, and Radiation sensors) was extended by a Mira-35 cloud radar, a scanning LITRA-S Doppler lidar and a Parsivel optical disdrometer. Together, these instruments brought the full ACTRIS aerosol and cloud profiling capabilities to a region where sophisticated ground-based observations were not available. The synergy of the different instruments allows for detailed retrievals of aerosol and cloud properties, such as cloud-relevant aerosol properties, liquid droplet properties and ice crystal concentrations. While data analysis is ongoing, three scientific highlights have already been identified during austral fall and winter, namely: Observations of a persistent shallow mixed-phase cloud embedded in a plume of advected marine aerosol. State of the art microphysical retrievals are used to obtain aerosol and cloud microphysical properties. Closure between cloud-relevant aerosol particles and precipitating ice crystals was achieved, demonstrating that the cloud formed in an aerosol-limited environment. Two extraordinary warm air intrusions: One with intense snowfall produced the equivalent of 10% of the yearly snow accumulation, a second one with record high temperatures and heavy icing due to supercooled drizzle. Omnipresent aerosol layers in the stratosphere, contributing almost 50% to the aerosol optical depth of around 0.06 at 500nm. Lidar-derived optical signatures revealed sulphate aerosol in the stratosphere - most likely linked to the Hunga Tonga eruption in 2022. We will present an overview of the campaign, the three highlights and provide an outlook on potential future usage of the dataset.