scholarly journals 3-D polarised simulations of space-borne passive mm/sub-mm midlatitude cirrus observations: a case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (15) ◽  
pp. 4149-4158 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Davis ◽  
K. F. Evans ◽  
S. A. Buehler ◽  
D. L. Wu ◽  
H. C. Pumphrey

Abstract. Global observations of ice clouds are needed to improve our understanding of their impact on earth's radiation balance and the water-cycle. Passive mm/sub-mm has some advantages compared to other space-borne cloud-ice remote sensing techniques. The physics of scattering makes forward radiative transfer modelling for such instruments challenging. This paper demonstrates the ability of a recently developed RT code, ARTS-MC, to accurately simulate observations of this type for a variety of viewing geometries corresponding to operational (AMSU-B, EOS-MLS) and proposed (CIWSIR) instruments. ARTS-MC employs an adjoint Monte-Carlo method, makes proper account of polarisation, and uses 3-D spherical geometry. The actual field of view characteristics for each instrument are also accounted for. A 3-D midlatitude cirrus scenario is used, which is derived from Chilbolton cloud radar data and a stochastic method for generating 3-D ice water content fields. These demonstration simulations clearly demonstrate the beamfilling effect, significant polarisation effects for non-spherical particles, and also a beamfilling effect with regard to polarisation.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 12701-12728 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Davis ◽  
K. F. Evans ◽  
S. A. Buehler ◽  
D. L. Wu ◽  
H. C. Pumphrey

Abstract. Global observations of ice clouds are needed to improve our understanding of their impact on earth's radiation balance and the water-cycle. Passive mm/sub-mm has some advantages compared to other space-borne cloud-ice remote sensing techniques. This paper presents detailed simulated observations for three such instruments, AMSU-B, CIWSIR, and EOS-MLS. The Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, ARTS-MC, makes proper account of polarisation and uses 3-D spherical geometry. The actual field of view characteristics for each instrument are also accounted for. A 3-D midlatitude cirrus scenario is used, which is derived from Chilbolton cloud radar data and a stochastic method for generating 3-D ice water content fields. Although the main purpose of the work was to demonstrate the capability of accurately simulating observations of this type, the results suggest that cloud inhomogeneity will affect CIWSIR, and EOSMLS low tangent height observations via the beamfilling effect. Also, the results confirm that preferentially oriented ice crystals will produce significant polarisation effects.



2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Yost ◽  
Kristopher M. Bedka ◽  
Patrick Minnis ◽  
Louis Nguyen ◽  
J. Walter Strapp ◽  
...  

Abstract. Recent studies have found that flight through deep convective storms and ingestion of high mass concentrations of ice crystals, also known as high ice water content (HIWC), into aircraft engines can adversely impact aircraft engine performance. These aircraft engine icing events caused by HIWC have been documented during flight in weak reflectivity regions near convective updraft regions that do not appear threatening in onboard weather radar data. Three airborne field campaigns were conducted in 2014 and 2015 to better understand how HIWC is distributed in deep convection, both as a function of altitude and proximity to convective updraft regions, and to facilitate development of new methods for detecting HIWC conditions, in addition to many other research and regulatory goals. This paper describes a prototype method for detecting HIWC conditions using geostationary (GEO) satellite imager data coupled with in-situ total water content (TWC) observations collected during the flight campaigns. Three satellite-derived parameters were determined to be most useful for determining HIWC probability: 1) the horizontal proximity of the aircraft to the nearest overshooting convective updraft or textured anvil cloud, 2) tropopause-relative infrared brightness temperature, and 3) daytime-only cloud optical depth. Statistical fits between collocated TWC and GEO satellite parameters were used to determine the membership functions for the fuzzy logic derivation of HIWC probability. The products were demonstrated using data from several campaign flights and validated using a subset of the satellite-aircraft collocation database. The daytime HIWC probability was found to agree quite well with TWC time trends and identified extreme TWC events with high probability. Discrimination of HIWC was more challenging at night with IR-only information. The products show the greatest capability for discriminating TWC ≥ 0.5 g m−3. Product validation remains challenging due to vertical TWC uncertainties and the typically coarse spatio-temporal resolution of the GEO data.



1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 840-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fouilloux ◽  
J. Iaquinta ◽  
C. Duroure ◽  
F. Albers

Abstract. Although small particles (size between 25 µm and 200 µm) are frequently observed within ice and water clouds, they are not generally used properly for the calculation of structural, optical and microphysical quantities. Actually neither the exact shape nor the phase (ice or water) of these particles is well defined since the existing pattern recognition algorithms are only efficient for larger particle sizes. The present study describes a statistical analysis concerning small hexagonal columns and spherical particles sampled with a PMS-2DC probe, and the corresponding images are classified according to the occurrence probability of various pixels arrangements. This approach was first applied to synthetic data generated with a numerical model, including the effects of diffraction at a short distance, and then validated against actual data sets obtained from in-cloud flights during the pre-ICE'89 campaign. Our method allows us to differentiate small hexagonal columns from spherical particles, thus making possible the characterization of the three dimensional shape (and consequently evaluation of the volume) of the particles, and finally to compute e.g., the liquid or the ice water content.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhold Spang ◽  
Irene Bartolome ◽  
Jörn Ungermann ◽  
Sabine Griessbach ◽  
Lars Hoffmann ◽  
...  

<p>Cirrus clouds are the highest altitude clouds in the troposphere and play an important role in the climate system. They can either have a cooling or heating effect in radiation balance around of the planet, depending on which altitude and temperature they appear. Despite the importance of this type of clouds for the radiation budget there are still big gaps of knowledge regarding their micro and macro physical properties (e.g. particle sizes, ice water content, occurrence and coverage at the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere), especially for optically very thin cirrus in the tropopause region, which are difficult to detect even for active lidar measurements. <span>Due to the long path length through the atmosphere and good vertical resolution passive infrared limb measurements are especially well suited to observe this type of clouds. The presentation will highlight the current status in infrared limb sounding and corresponding particle parameter retrievals with respect to recent and future space and airborne sensors (e.g. CRISTA, MIPAS, </span><span>and IR limb-imaging instruments</span><span>). </span></p>



2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 6091-6105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven T. Massie ◽  
Julien Delanoë ◽  
Charles G. Bardeen ◽  
Jonathan H. Jiang ◽  
Lei Huang

Abstract. Changes in the shape of cloud ice water content (IWC) vertical structure due to variations in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depths (AODs), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) absorptive aerosol optical depths (AAODs), and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) CO (an absorptive aerosol proxy) at 215 hPa are calculated in the Tropics during 2007–2010 based upon an analysis of DARDAR IWC profiles for deep convective clouds. DARDAR profiles are a joint retrieval of CloudSat-CALIPSO data. Analysis is performed for 12 separate regions over land and ocean, and carried out applying MODIS AOD fields that attempt to correct for 3-D cloud adjacency effects. The 3-D cloud adjacency effects have a small impact upon our particular calculations of aerosol–cloud indirect effects. IWC profiles are averaged for three AOD bins individually for the 12 regions. The IWC average profiles are also normalized to unity at 5 km altitude in order to study changes in the shape of the average IWC profiles as AOD increases. Derivatives of the IWC average profiles, and derivatives of the IWC shape profiles, in percent change per 0.1 change in MODIS AOD units, are calculated separately for each region. Means of altitude-specific probability distribution functions, which include both ocean and land IWC shape regional derivatives, are modest, near 5 %, and positive to the 2σ level between 11 and 15 km altitude. Similar analyses are carried out for three AAOD and three CO bins. On average, the vertical profiles of the means of the derivatives based upon the profile shapes over land and ocean are smaller for the profiles binned according to AAOD and CO values, than for the MODIS AODs, which include both scattering and absorptive aerosol. This difference in character supports the assertion that absorptive aerosol can inhibit cloud development.



2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 2104-2119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binod Pokharel ◽  
Gabor Vali

AbstractMeasured 94-GHz reflectivity in midlevel, stratiform ice clouds was compared with reflectivity calculated from size distributions determined with a particle imaging probe. The radar and the particle probe were carried on the same aircraft, the Wyoming King Air, ensuring close spatial correspondence between the two measurements. Good overall agreement was found within the range from −18 to +16 dBZ, but there is an important degree of scatter in the results. Two different assumptions about particle density led to calculated values that bracket the observations. The agreement found for reflectivity supports the use of the data for establishing relationships between the measured reflectivity and ice water content and between precipitation rate and reflectivity. The resulting equation for ice water content (IWC vs Z) agrees with the results of Liu and Illingworth within a factor of 2 over the range of overlap between the two datasets. The equation here reported for precipitation rate (PR vs Z) has a shallower slope in the power-law relationship than that reported by Matrosov as a consequence of sampling particles of greater densities. Because the radar and the particle probe were collocated on the same platform, errors arising from differences in sampling locations and volumes were minimized. Therefore it is concluded that the roughly factor-of-10 spread in IWC and in PR for given Z is, primarily, a result of variations in ice crystal shape and density. Retrievals of IWC and PR from cloud radar data can be expected to have that level of uncertainty.



2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven T. Massie ◽  
Julien Delanoe ◽  
Charles G. Bardeen

Abstract. Changes in the shape of cloud ice water content vertical structure due to aerosol variations are calculated in the Tropics during 2007–2010 based upon an analysis of DARDAR ice water content (IWC) profiles for deep convective clouds. DARDAR profiles are a joint retrieval of CloudSat-CALIPSO data. Our analysis is performed for 12 separate regions over land and ocean, and carried out applying Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) fields that attempt to correct for 3D cloud adjacency effects. The 3D cloud adjacency effects have a small impact upon our calculations of aerosol-cloud indirect effects. IWC profiles are averaged for three AOD bins individually for the 12 regions. The IWC average profiles are also normalized to unity at 5 km altitude in order to study changes in the shape of the average IWC profiles as AOD increases. Derivatives of the IWC average profiles, and derivatives of the IWC shape profiles, in percent change per 0.1 change in MODIS AOD units, are calculated separately for each region. Means of altitude-specific probability distribution functions, which include both ocean and land IWC shape regional derivatives, are modest, near 5 %, and positive to the 2σ level between 11 and 15 km altitude.



2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong L. Wu ◽  
Alyn Lambert ◽  
William G. Read ◽  
Patrick Eriksson ◽  
Jie Gong

AbstractThis study examines the consistency and microphysics assumptions among satellite ice water content (IWC) retrievals in the upper troposphere with collocated A-Train radiances from Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and lidar backscatters from Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP). For the cases in which IWC values are small (<10 mg m−3), the cloud ice retrievals are constrained by both MLS 240- and 640-GHz radiances and CALIOP 532-nm backscatter β532. From the observed relationships between MLS cloud-induced radiance Tcir and the CALIOP backscatter integrated γ532 along the MLS line of sight, an empirical linear relation between cloud ice and the lidar backscatter is found: IWC/β532 = 0.58 ± 0.11. This lidar cloud ice relation is required to satisfy the cloud ice emission signals simultaneously observed at microwave frequencies, in which ice permittivity is relatively well known. This empirical relationship also produces IWC values that agree well with the CALIOP, version 3.0, retrieval at values <10 mg m−3. Because the microphysics assumption is critical in satellite cloud ice retrievals, the agreement found in the IWC–β532 relationships increase fidelity of the assumptions used by the lidar and microwave techniques for upper-tropospheric clouds.



2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody Avery ◽  
David Winker ◽  
Andrew Heymsfield ◽  
Mark Vaughan ◽  
Stuart Young ◽  
...  


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Buiat ◽  
Federico Porcù ◽  
Stefano Dietrich

Abstract. Cloud electrification and related lightning activity in thunderstorms have their origin in the charge separation and resulting distribution of charged iced particles within the cloud. So far, the ice distribution within convective clouds has been investigated mainly by means of ground-based meteorological radars. In this paper we show how the products from Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) on board CloudSat, a polar satellite of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP), can be used to obtain information from space on the vertical distribution of ice particles and ice content and relate them to the lightning activity. The analysis has been carried out, focusing on 12 convective events over Italy that crossed CloudSat overpasses during significant lightning activity. The CPR products considered here are the vertical profiles of cloud ice water content (IWC) and the effective radius (ER) of ice particles, which are compared with the number of strokes as measured by a ground lightning network (LINET). Results show a strong correlation between the number of strokes and the vertical distribution of ice particles as depicted by the 94 GHz CPR products: in particular, cloud upper and middle levels, high IWC content and relatively high ER seem to be favourable contributory causes for CG (cloud to ground) stroke occurrence.



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