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2.3.1 Description of the flight profile flown during SPECTRA 1 <br />During the SPECTRA 1 campaign, the SOAR research aircraft was deployed in a region of enhanced <br />convection to conduct CCN measurements and subsequent measurements of drop size distributions <br />through the vertical development of the cloud. Figure 4 shows a schematic of the flight plan during the 2 <br />phases of the flight. During the first phase, the aircraft was launched and vectored in the vicinity of a <br />convective cloud. Sometimes adjustments in altitude were made to identify the up shear portion of the <br />convective structure (green profile). When this area was located, the aircraft flew 100 feet to 500 feet <br />below the cloud base to measure concentrations of CCN (blue profile). The crew was cautious not to fly <br />into an area of rainfall, since rain droplets can be identified as CCN in the CCN instrument and <br />contaminate the data. These measurements were usually conducted for 10 to 20 minutes. This time <br />frame allowed for the CCN instrument to cycle through at least two supersaturation cycles. When the <br />CCN measurements were complete, the aircraft increased its altitude to the cloud base level (red profile). <br />From this level, several cloud penetrations were made on the up shear portion of the cloud structure. The <br />ceiling of the research aircraft was determined to be at 25,000 feet for SPECTRA 1, so no cloud <br />penetrations were made above this level. On most occasions, cloud penetrations were shorter than one <br />minute in duration. <br />Figure 4a: Schematic of the flight plan (1 phase) during SPECTRA 1 <br />st <br />19 <br />