THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE'S PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL CIRUS EXPERIMENT IS MADE UP OF THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS.

1. PARTICIPATION WITH THEIR C130 AIRCRAFT IN FIELD EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE DETAILED RADIATIVE PROPERTIES AND MICROPHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF CIRRUS CLOUDS. A PERIOD IN AUTUMN 88 IS PLANNED IN WHICH THE C130 WILL ATTEMPT TO MAKE ONE FLIGHT FOR INTERCOMPARISION OF RADIOMETERS WITH DFVLR'S FALCON. THE MAIN EXPERIMENT WILL BE IN AUTUMN '88 OR SPRING '89 WHEN UP TO 40 FLYING HOURS ARE COMMITED TO ICE.

2. ANALYSIS OF RAW AIRCRAFT DATA AND DATA EXCHANGE WITH THE EUROPEAN PARTICIPATING GROUPS.

3. DETAILED SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS :

A) RELATING BROAD BAND EMISSIVITY TO THE CLOUD PROBE (20-PMS) DATA.
B) ASSESSING ANGULAR SCATTERING INTENSITIES AS A FUNCTION OF OPTICAL DEPTH.
C) STUDYING THE MULTI-SPECTRAL MEASUREMENTS TO DETERMINE AN EFFECTIVE RADIUS.
D) RELATING (C) TO OBSERVED SIZE DISTRIBUTION AND UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM IN DETERMINING ICE WATER CONTENT.
E) DEVELOPING EXISTING MODELS WITH THE DETAIL IN (A)-(D) TO UNDERSTAND HOW TERRESTRIAL AND SOLAR RADIATION INTERACT WITH CIRRUS CLOUD.
F) IMPROVING THE PROCESSING OF PMS-PROBE DATA, INCLUDING INDIVIDUAL PARTICLE CLASSIFICATION AND COMPARISION WITH HOLOGRAPHIC IMAGES. STUDYING HOW TO INFER ICE WATER CONTENT FROM PROBE INFORMATION.
G) BUILDING UP STATISTICS OF CLOUDS PHYSICS INFORMATION WITHIN A FRAMEWORK OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. STUDYING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MICROPHYSICS AND CLOUD SCALE DYNAMICAL AND THERMODYNAMICAL STRUCTURE.
H) IMPROVING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES CONTROLLING THE MICROPHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF CIRRUS TO DEVELOP MODELS BASED ON THE MICROPHYSICS OF ICE CRYSTAL GROWTH, SEDIMENTATION AND RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSFER WHICH MAY BE USED TO PREDICT CLOUD DEVELOPMENT.