The First ISCCP Regional Experiments have been designed to improve data products and cloud/radiation parameterizations used in general circulation models (GCMs). Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to improve the basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems and the radiative properties of these clouds during their life cycles and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between the ISCCP data, GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud data. To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13 - November 2, 1986); a marine stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29 - July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November 13 - December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - June 28, 1992). Each mission combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical processes of the cloud systems.SOFIA (Surface of the Ocean, Fluxes and Interaction with the Atmosphere) is a research program carried out by French groups from the Centre de Recherches en Physique de l'Environnement (CRPE), Laboratoire l'Aerologie (LA)-Toulouse, Centre de Meteorologie Marine (CMM)-Brest, Institut Francais de Rechercher sur la Mer (IFREMER)-Brest, Service d'Aeronomie-Paris, and Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique (LMD)-Palaiseau with cooperation from Centre National de Recherche Meteorologique (CNRM)-Toulouse. The scientific objective of SOFIA during ASTEX was the study of energy transfer (heat, humidity and momentum fluxes) between the sea surface and the atmospheric boundary layer at scales ranging from the local scale to the mesoscale (50 km). The general concept of the program was to develop a measurement strategy based on nested boxes in which instrumentation would be used to estimate and quantify fluxes. These instruments, from which flux estimates at different scales would be measured, were used in connection with satellite measurements to understand and, hence, to validate the satellite integration of fluxes, particularly in the presence of mesoscale oceanic and atmospheric structures responsible for spatial inhomogeneity of fluxes. The FOKKER F27 aircraft with flux measurement package and the airborne Lidar Leandre was used during ASTEX. The FOKKER 27 ARAT capabilities were as follows: * Turbulence measurements of wind, temperature and moisture. Fast response sensors located on a nose boom 5m long, which measured - attack and sideslip angles by mobile vanes and by a five hole probe (Rosemound 858). - true airspeed by a Pitot probe - temperature by a fast response INSU probe - humidity by a Lyman-alpha humidity meter * Mean state sensors - Rosemount temperature probe - Reverse-flow temperature probe - General Eastern dew point sensor * Aerosols and cloud microphysics - 1-D drop size measurements from 0-6000 microns by four Knollenberg sensors - 2-D sensor OAP 2DC for drop sizes between 25 and 800 microns * Liquid water content - Johnson-Williams sensors * Radiative measurements, up- and downward - Longwave (14-40 microns) Eppley radiometers - Shortwave (0.2-2.8 microns) Eppley radiometers - Radiances (7.8-14 microns) Barnes PRT5 radiometers * Chemical measurements(isokinetic veins) * Pointint backscatter lidar (Leandre) * Directional reflectances meausrements (POLDER- Polarized Direct Reflectance)