Vignettes of the Fog and Turbulence in Marine Atmosphere (Fatima) 2022 Field Campaign

In a comprehensive field campaign conducted during 01-31 July 2022, the key drivers in the formation, maturation, and dissipation (i.e., lifecycle) of marine fog were studied, particularly the role of atmospheric turbulence. Momentum, temperature, humidity, and aerosol inhomogeneities of large-scale weather systems cascade down to the smallest (Kolmogorov) scale of atmospheric turbulence (~ 1mm), and the fog droplets form around hygroscopic aerosols of size ~ 100 nm embedded therein, the physicochemical properties of which also play an important role. The massive Fatima field campaign was based on (i) an isolated narrow (1km x 40km) island – Sable Island - located in the North Atlantic Ocean south of Grand Banks and proximity to continental shelf break in a region where cold Labrador and warm Gulf Stream waters osculate, and (ii) the research vessel R/V Atlantic Condor that traversed the area, which also deployed a suite of autonomous surface crafts. All measurement platforms were instrumented in unprecedented proportions by dozens of investigators, with novel and conventional instruments that probed from ~ 1000 km synoptic to ~ 100 nm microphysical scales of the atmosphere as well as upper ~ 250 m of the ocean, supplemented by studies on bio-chemo-physical properties of aerosol nuclei. A brief overview of the Fatima-2022 field campaign will be given in this presentation.