The second Megha-Tropiques validation/preparation field programme funded by CNES took place in Gan (the Maldives) from 15/11/11 to 15/12/12. The set up is similar to the one initiated for the Niamey campaign but with a upgrading of several instruments and probes.. The French Falcon 20 took on board several in-situ microphysical probes (FSSP, 2DS, CPI, PIP, 2DP, Nevzorov) which were dedicated to sampling hydrometeors (deriving ice particles distribution as a function of their size and shape) and quantify total water content. In addition, the airborne 95GHz cloud radar RASTA ( http://rali.projet.latmos.ipsl.fr/ ) was operating in the very novel six-beam configuration allowing one to retrieve microphysical ice-cloud properties and 3D dynamics of clouds. Several instruments had also been deployed by the US/Japanese colleagues for the DYNAMO (Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation) campaign, while the F20 was flying inside the polarimetric radar area. A successful collaboration with the NOAA P3 aircraft on 8th December 2011 saw, for the first time, some convective systems sampled simultaneously by ground-based radars (SPOL-SMARTR-KAZR), airborne radars at 95GHz and 10GHz and in-situ measurements.
Altogether 11 succesfull scientif flights were achieved :
Check here for information about the CINDY-DYNAMO campaigns :
http://climserv.ipsl.polytechnique.fr/cdoc/