Not an albedo flight

Yesterday we aimed the second time for a meeting with Polarstern. Initially planned as a clear sky flight to measure the surface albedo of sea ice in different areas and close to Polarstern, this plan did not work out in detail. Exactly in the observation area we encountered again a large field of thin low level clouds. The forecast models did predict that these clouds will disolve in the evening but they did not that fast showing that weather models still have serious ploblems in predicting clouds over sea ice.

Due to the flexibility of Polar 5 & 6 we quickly could change our plans during the flight and switched into cloud mode flying below, in, and above clouds. The meeting with Polarstern also had to be adjusted. When Polarstern hit the sea ice, the cruising speed drastically decreased and the predicted position was far from the location of Polarstern during the flight. Communication with the tower of Polarstern worked well and we finally found the ship. Again we sampled the clouds in different altitutes and added legs for remote sensing and the aerosol and trace gas profile.
Obviously people on board Polarstern were aware of our overflights and took some pictures.