Articles | Volume 15, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3969-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3969-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
05 Jul 2022
Research article |
| 05 Jul 2022
| 05 Jul 2022
Retrievals of ice microphysical properties using dual-wavelength polarimetric radar observations during stratiform precipitation events
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Florian Ewald
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Martin Hagen
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Gregor Köcher
Meteorologisches Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
Tobias Zinner
Meteorologisches Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
Silke Groß
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
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Gregor Köcher, Tobias Zinner, Christoph Knote, Eleni Tetoni, Florian Ewald, and Martin Hagen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1033–1054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1033-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1033-2022, 2022
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We present a setup for systematic characterization of differences between numerical weather models and radar observations for convective weather situations. Radar observations providing dual-wavelength and polarimetric variables to infer information about hydrometeor shapes and sizes are compared against simulations using microphysics schemes of varying complexity. Differences are found in ice and liquid phase, pointing towards issues of some schemes in reproducing particle size distributions.
Martin Hagen, Florian Ewald, Silke Groß, Lothar Oswald, David A. Farrell, Marvin Forde, Manuel Gutleben, Johann Heumos, Jens Reimann, Eleni Tetoni, Gregor Köcher, Eleni Marinou, Christoph Kiemle, Qiang Li, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Alton Daley, Delando Grant, and Kashawn Hall
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5899–5914, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5899-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5899-2021, 2021
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The German polarimetric weather radar Poldirad was deployed for the international campaign EUREC4A on Barbados. The focus was monitoring clouds and precipitation in the trade wind region east of Barbados. Observations were with a temporal sequence of 5 min and a maximum range of 375 km. Examples of mesoscale precipitation patterns, rain rate accumulation, diurnal cycle, and vertical distribution show the potential for further studies on the life cycle of precipitating shallow cumulus clouds.
Silke Trömel, Clemens Simmer, Ulrich Blahak, Armin Blanke, Sabine Doktorowski, Florian Ewald, Michael Frech, Mathias Gergely, Martin Hagen, Tijana Janjic, Heike Kalesse-Los, Stefan Kneifel, Christoph Knote, Jana Mendrok, Manuel Moser, Gregor Köcher, Kai Mühlbauer, Alexander Myagkov, Velibor Pejcic, Patric Seifert, Prabhakar Shrestha, Audrey Teisseire, Leonie von Terzi, Eleni Tetoni, Teresa Vogl, Christiane Voigt, Yuefei Zeng, Tobias Zinner, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17291–17314, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, 2021
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The article introduces the ACP readership to ongoing research in Germany on cloud- and precipitation-related process information inherent in polarimetric radar measurements, outlines pathways to inform atmospheric models with radar-based information, and points to remaining challenges towards an improved fusion of radar polarimetry and atmospheric modelling.
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Manfred Wendisch, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Benjamin Kirbus, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Steven J. Abel, Elisa F. Akansu, Felix Ament, Clémantyne Aubry, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Marlen Brückner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Sandro Dahlke, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Julien Delanoë, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Sarah Grawe, Silke Groß, Jörg Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Lutz Hirsch, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsofia Jurányi, Michail Karalis, Mona Kellermann, Marcus Klingebiel, Michael Lonardi, Johannes Lucke, Anna Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Bernhard Mayer, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Janosch Michaelis, Michel Michalkov, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Roel Neggers, Davide Ori, Daria Paul, Fiona Paulus, Christian Pilz, Felix Pithan, Mira Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Maximilian Ringel, Nils Risse, Gregory C. Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna Rückert, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schäfer, Vera Schemannn, Imke Schirmacher, Jörg Schmidt, Sebastian Schmidt, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Anja Schwarz, Holger Siebert, Harald Sodemann, Tim Sperzel, Gunnar Spreen, Bjorn Stevens, Frank Stratmann, Gunilla Svensson, Christian Tatzelt, Thomas Tuch, Timo Vihma, Christiane Voigt, Lea Volkmer, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Birgit Wehner, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, and Tobias Zinner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-783, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-783, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe. Warm air intrusions (WAIs) into the Arctic may play an important role in explaining this phenomenon. Cold air outbreaks (CAOs) out of the Arctic may link the Arctic climate changes to the mid-latitude weather. In our article we describe how to observe air mass transformations during CAOs and WAIs using three research aircraft instrumented wit state-of-the-art remote sensing and in-situ measurement devices.
Anna Weber, Tobias Kölling, Veronika Pörtge, Andreas Baumgartner, Clemens Rammeloo, Tobias Zinner, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1419–1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1419-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1419-2024, 2024
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In this work, we introduce the 2D RGB polarization-resolving cameras of the airborne hyperspectral and polarized imaging system specMACS. A full characterization and calibration of the cameras including a geometric calibration as well as a radiometric characterization is provided, allowing for the computation of absolute calibrated, georeferenced Stokes vectors rotated into the scattering plane. We validate the calibration by comparing sunglint measurements to radiative transfer simulations.
Lea Volkmer, Tobias Kölling, Tobias Zinner, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-19, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-19, 2024
Preprint under review for AMT
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The importance of the consideration of cloud motion for the stereographic determination of cloud top height from aircraft observations is demonstrated using measurements of the airborne spectrometer of the Munich Aerosol Cloud Scanner (specMACS). A method for the cloud motion correction using model winds from ECMWF is presented and validated using both, real measurements and realistic radiative transfer simulations.
Johannes Röttenbacher, André Ehrlich, Hanno Müller, Florian Ewald, Anna E. Luebke, Benjamin Kirbus, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-281, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-281, 2024
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Weather prediction models simplify the physical processes related to light scattering by clouds consisting of complex ice crystals. Whether these simplifications are the cause for uncertainties in their prediction can be evaluated by comparing them with measurement data. Here we do this for Arctic ice clouds over sea ice using airborne measurements from two case studies. The model performs good for thick ice clouds but not so good for thin ones. This work can be used to improve the model.
Silke Groß, Volker Freudenthaler, Moritz Haarig, Albert Ansmann, Carlos Toledano, David Mateos, Petra Seibert, Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri, Argyro Nisantzi, Josef Gasteiger, Maximilian Dollner, Anne Tipka, Manuel Schöberl, Marilena Teri, and Bernadett Weinzierl
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-140, 2024
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Aerosols contribute to the largest uncertainties in climate change predictions. Especially absorbing aerosols propose difficulties in our understanding. The eastern Mediterranean is a hot spot for aerosols with natural and anthropogenic contributions. We present lidar measurements performed during the A-LIFE field experiment to characterize aerosols and aerosol mixtures. We extend current classification and separation schemes and compare different classification schemes.
Clémantyne Aubry, Julien Delanoë, Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, Frédéric Tridon, Olivier Jourdan, and Guillaume Mioche
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-252, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-252, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The radar-lidar synergy is used to retrieve ice, supercooled water and mixed-phase clouds properties, making the most of the radar sensitivity to ice crystals and the lidar to the supercooled droplets. First analysis of the output of the algorithm run on the satellite data is compared with in situ data during an airborne Arctic field campaign, giving a mean percent error of 49 % for liquid water content and 75 % for ice water content.
Georgios Dekoutsidis, Martin Wirth, and Silke Groß
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2708, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2708, 2023
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Since decades the earth’s temperature has been rising. The arctic regions are warming faster. Cirrus clouds can contribute to this phenomenon. During warm air intrusions, airmasses are transported into the arctic from the mid-latitudes. The HALO-(AC)3 campaign took place to measure cirrus during intrusion events and under normal conditions. We study the two cloud types based on these measurements and find differences in their geometry, relative humidity distribution and vertical structure.
Silke Groß, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Qiang Li, Martin Wirth, Benedikt Urbanek, Martina Krämer, Ralf Weigel, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8369–8381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, 2023
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Aviation-emitted aerosol can have an impact on cirrus clouds. We present optical and microphysical properties of mid-latitude cirrus clouds which were formed under the influence of aviation-emitted aerosol or which were formed under rather pristine conditions. We find that cirrus clouds affected by aviation-emitted aerosol show larger values of the particle linear depolarization ratio, larger mean effective ice particle diameters and decreased ice particle number concentrations.
Karina McCusker, Anthony J. Baran, Chris Westbrook, Stuart Fox, Patrick Eriksson, Richard Cotton, Julien Delanoë, and Florian Ewald
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-126, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-126, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Polarised radiative transfer simulations are performed using an atmospheric model based on in-situ measurements. These are compared to large polarisation measurements, to explore whether such measurements can provide information on cloud ice, e.g. particle shape and orientation. We find that using oriented particle models with shapes based on imagery generally allows for accurate simulations. However, results are sensitive to shape assumptions such as the choice of single crystals or aggregates.
Philipp Gregor, Tobias Zinner, Fabian Jakub, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3257–3271, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, 2023
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This work introduces MACIN, a model for short-term forecasting of direct irradiance for solar energy applications. MACIN exploits cloud images of multiple cameras to predict irradiance. The model is applied to artificial images of clouds from a weather model. The artificial cloud data allow for a more in-depth evaluation and attribution of errors compared with real data. Good performance of derived cloud information and significant forecast improvements over a baseline forecast were found.
Gregor Köcher, Tobias Zinner, and Christoph Knote
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6255–6269, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6255-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6255-2023, 2023
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Polarimetric radar observations of 30 d of convective precipitation events are used to statistically analyze 5 state-of-the-art microphysics schemes of varying complexity. The frequency and area of simulated heavy-precipitation events are in some cases significantly different from those observed, depending on the microphysics scheme. Analysis of simulated particle size distributions and reflectivities shows that some schemes have problems reproducing the correct particle size distributions.
Georgios Dekoutsidis, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, Martina Krämer, and Christian Rolf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3103–3117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3103-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3103-2023, 2023
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Cirrus clouds affect Earth's atmosphere, deeming our study important. Here we use water vapor measurements by lidar and study the relative humidity (RHi) within and around midlatitude cirrus clouds. We find high supersaturations in the cloud-free air and within the clouds, especially near the cloud top. We study two cloud types with different formation processes. Finally, we conclude that the shape of the distribution of RHi can be used as an indicator of different cloud evolutionary stages.
Yun Li, Christoph Mahnke, Susanne Rohs, Ulrich Bundke, Nicole Spelten, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Silke Groß, Christiane Voigt, Ulrich Schumann, Andreas Petzold, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2251–2271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2251-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2251-2023, 2023
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The radiative effect of aviation-induced cirrus is closely related to ambient conditions and its microphysical properties. Our study investigated the occurrence of contrail and natural cirrus measured above central Europe in spring 2014. It finds that contrail cirrus appears frequently in the pressure range 200 to 245 hPa and occurs more often in slightly ice-subsaturated environments than expected. Avoiding slightly ice-subsaturated regions by aviation might help mitigate contrail cirrus.
Ziming Wang, Luca Bugliaro, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Romy Heller, Ulrike Burkhardt, Helmut Ziereis, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Martin Wirth, Silke Groß, Simon Kirschler, Stefan Kaufmann, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1941–1961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, 2023
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Differences in the microphysical properties of contrail cirrus and natural cirrus in a contrail outbreak situation during the ML-CIRRUS campaign over the North Atlantic flight corridor can be observed from in situ measurements. The cirrus radiative effect in the area of the outbreak, derived from satellite observation-based radiative transfer modeling, is warming in the early morning and cooling during the day.
Veronika Pörtge, Tobias Kölling, Anna Weber, Lea Volkmer, Claudia Emde, Tobias Zinner, Linda Forster, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 645–667, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-645-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-645-2023, 2023
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In this work, we analyze polarized cloudbow observations by the airborne camera system specMACS to retrieve the cloud droplet size distribution defined by the effective radius (reff) and the effective variance (veff). Two case studies of trade-wind cumulus clouds observed during the EUREC4A field campaign are presented. The results are combined into maps of reff and veff with a very high spatial resolution (100 m × 100 m) that allow new insights into cloud microphysics.
Qiang Li and Silke Groß
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15963–15980, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15963-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15963-2022, 2022
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The IPCC report identified that cirrus clouds have a significant impact on the radiation balance comparable to the CO2 effects, which, however, is still hard to parameterize. The current study investigates the possible impact of aviation on cirrus properties based on the analysis of 10-year lidar measurements of CALIPSO. The results reveal that there is a significant positive trend in cirrus depolarization ratio in the last 10 years before COVID-19, which is strongly correlated with aviation.
Manuel Gutleben, Silke Groß, Christian Heske, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7319–7330, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7319-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7319-2022, 2022
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The main transportation route of Saharan mineral dust particles leads over the subtropical Atlantic Ocean and is subject to a seasonal variation. This study investigates the characteristics of wintertime transatlantic dust transport towards the Caribbean by means of airborne lidar measurements. It is found that dust particles are transported at low atmospheric altitudes (<3.5 km) embedded in a relatively moist mixture with two other particle types, namely marine and biomass-burning particles.
Mireia Papke Chica, Valerian Hahn, Tiziana Braeuer, Elena de la Torre Castro, Florian Ewald, Mathias Gergely, Simon Kirschler, Luca Bugliaro Goggia, Stefanie Knobloch, Martina Kraemer, Johannes Lucke, Johanna Mayer, Raphael Maerkl, Manuel Moser, Laura Tomsche, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martin Zoeger, Christian von Savigny, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
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The mixed-phase temperature regime in convective clouds challenges our understanding of microphysical and radiative cloud properties. We provide a rare and unique dataset of aircraft in situ measurements in a strong mid-latitude convective system. We find that mechanisms initiating ice nucleation and growth strongly depend on temperature, relative humidity, and vertical velocity and variate within the measured system, resulting in altitude dependent changes of the cloud liquid and ice fraction.
Gregor Köcher, Tobias Zinner, Christoph Knote, Eleni Tetoni, Florian Ewald, and Martin Hagen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1033–1054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1033-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1033-2022, 2022
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We present a setup for systematic characterization of differences between numerical weather models and radar observations for convective weather situations. Radar observations providing dual-wavelength and polarimetric variables to infer information about hydrometeor shapes and sizes are compared against simulations using microphysics schemes of varying complexity. Differences are found in ice and liquid phase, pointing towards issues of some schemes in reproducing particle size distributions.
Simon Pfreundschuh, Stuart Fox, Patrick Eriksson, David Duncan, Stefan A. Buehler, Manfred Brath, Richard Cotton, and Florian Ewald
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 677–699, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-677-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-677-2022, 2022
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We test a novel method to remotely measure ice particles in clouds. This is important because such measurements are required to improve climate and weather models. The method combines a radar with newly developed sensors measuring microwave radiation at very short wavelengths. We use observations made from aircraft flying above the cloud and compare them to real measurements from inside the cloud. This works well given that one can model the ice particles in the cloud sufficiently well.
Leonie Villiger, Heini Wernli, Maxi Boettcher, Martin Hagen, and Franziska Aemisegger
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 59–88, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-59-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-59-2022, 2022
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The coupling between the large-scale atmospheric circulation and the clouds in the trade-wind region is complex and not yet fully understood. In this study, the formation pathway of two anomalous cloud layers over Barbados during the field campaign EUREC4A is described. The two case studies highlight the influence of remote weather systems on the local environmental conditions in Barbados.
Martin Hagen, Florian Ewald, Silke Groß, Lothar Oswald, David A. Farrell, Marvin Forde, Manuel Gutleben, Johann Heumos, Jens Reimann, Eleni Tetoni, Gregor Köcher, Eleni Marinou, Christoph Kiemle, Qiang Li, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Alton Daley, Delando Grant, and Kashawn Hall
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5899–5914, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5899-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5899-2021, 2021
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The German polarimetric weather radar Poldirad was deployed for the international campaign EUREC4A on Barbados. The focus was monitoring clouds and precipitation in the trade wind region east of Barbados. Observations were with a temporal sequence of 5 min and a maximum range of 375 km. Examples of mesoscale precipitation patterns, rain rate accumulation, diurnal cycle, and vertical distribution show the potential for further studies on the life cycle of precipitating shallow cumulus clouds.
Silke Trömel, Clemens Simmer, Ulrich Blahak, Armin Blanke, Sabine Doktorowski, Florian Ewald, Michael Frech, Mathias Gergely, Martin Hagen, Tijana Janjic, Heike Kalesse-Los, Stefan Kneifel, Christoph Knote, Jana Mendrok, Manuel Moser, Gregor Köcher, Kai Mühlbauer, Alexander Myagkov, Velibor Pejcic, Patric Seifert, Prabhakar Shrestha, Audrey Teisseire, Leonie von Terzi, Eleni Tetoni, Teresa Vogl, Christiane Voigt, Yuefei Zeng, Tobias Zinner, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17291–17314, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, 2021
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The article introduces the ACP readership to ongoing research in Germany on cloud- and precipitation-related process information inherent in polarimetric radar measurements, outlines pathways to inform atmospheric models with radar-based information, and points to remaining challenges towards an improved fusion of radar polarimetry and atmospheric modelling.
Heike Konow, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Marek Jacob, Marcus Klingebiel, Tobias Kölling, Anna E. Luebke, Theresa Mieslinger, Veronika Pörtge, Jule Radtke, Michael Schäfer, Hauke Schulz, Raphaela Vogel, Martin Wirth, Sandrine Bony, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Linda Forster, Andreas Giez, Felix Gödde, Silke Groß, Manuel Gutleben, Martin Hagen, Lutz Hirsch, Friedhelm Jansen, Theresa Lang, Bernhard Mayer, Mario Mech, Marc Prange, Sabrina Schnitt, Jessica Vial, Andreas Walbröl, Manfred Wendisch, Kevin Wolf, Tobias Zinner, Martin Zöger, Felix Ament, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5545–5563, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5545-2021, 2021
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The German research aircraft HALO took part in the research campaign EUREC4A in January and February 2020. The focus area was the tropical Atlantic east of the island of Barbados. We describe the characteristics of the 15 research flights, provide auxiliary information, derive combined cloud mask products from all instruments that observe clouds on board the aircraft, and provide code examples that help new users of the data to get started.
Qiang Li and Silke Groß
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14573–14590, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14573-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14573-2021, 2021
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Aircraft emit exhaust gases and particles directly into the atmosphere, which may contribute to climate change. We present a significant reduction in the occurrence rate and particle linear depolarization ratio of cirrus clouds based on the analysis of measurements with the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite during COVID-19 when air traffic was significantly reduced. The findings imply that these clouds formed with less influence from aviation.
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Florian Ewald, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, Julien Delanoë, Stuart Fox, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5029–5047, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5029-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5029-2021, 2021
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In this study, we show how solar radiance observations can be used to validate and further constrain ice cloud microphysics retrieved from the synergy of radar–lidar measurements. Since most radar–lidar retrievals rely on a global assumption about the ice particle shape, ice water content and particle size biases are to be expected in individual cloud regimes. In this work, we identify and correct these biases by reconciling simulated and measured solar radiation reflected from these clouds.
Annika Oertel, Michael Sprenger, Hanna Joos, Maxi Boettcher, Heike Konow, Martin Hagen, and Heini Wernli
Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 89–110, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-89-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-89-2021, 2021
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Convection embedded in the stratiform cloud band of strongly ascending airstreams in extratropical cyclones (so-called warm conveyor belts) can influence not only surface precipitation but also the
upper-tropospheric potential vorticity (PV) and waveguide. The comparison of intense vs. moderate embedded convection shows that its strength alone is not a reliable measure for upper-tropospheric PV modification. Instead, characteristics of the ambient flow co-determine its dynamical significance.
Ourania Soupiona, Alexandros Papayannis, Panagiotis Kokkalis, Romanos Foskinis, Guadalupe Sánchez Hernández, Pablo Ortiz-Amezcua, Maria Mylonaki, Christina-Anna Papanikolaou, Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, Stefanos Samaras, Silke Groß, Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri, Lucas Alados-Arboledas, Aldo Amodeo, and Basil Psiloglou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15147–15166, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15147-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15147-2020, 2020
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51 dust events over the Mediterranean from EARLINET were studied regarding the aerosol geometrical, optical and microphysical properties and radiative forcing. We found δp532 values of 0.24–0.28, LR532 values of 49–52 sr and AOT532 of 0.11–0.40. The aerosol mixing state was also examined. Depending on the dust properties, intensity and solar zenith angle, the estimated solar radiative forcing ranged from −59 to −22 W m−2 at the surface and from −24 to −1 W m−2 at the TOA (cooling effect).
Anna Gialitaki, Alexandra Tsekeri, Vassilis Amiridis, Romain Ceolato, Lucas Paulien, Anna Kampouri, Antonis Gkikas, Stavros Solomos, Eleni Marinou, Moritz Haarig, Holger Baars, Albert Ansmann, Tatyana Lapyonok, Anton Lopatin, Oleg Dubovik, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, Maria Tsichla, Ioanna Tsikoudi, and Dimitris Balis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14005–14021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14005-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14005-2020, 2020
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Stratospheric smoke particles are found to significantly depolarize incident light, while this effect is also accompanied by a strong spectral dependence. We utilize scattering simulations to show that this behaviour can be attributed to the near-spherical shape of the particles. We also examine whether an extension of the current AERONET scattering model to include the near-spherical shapes could be of benefit to the AERONET retrieval for stratospheric smoke associated with enhanced PLDR.
Manuel Gutleben, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12313–12327, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12313-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12313-2020, 2020
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Airborne lidar measurements in the vicinity of Barbados are used to investigate radiative effects of long-range-transported Saharan air layers. Derived atmospheric heating rates indicate that observed enhanced water vapor concentrations inside these layers are the main drivers for dust vertical mixing inside the layers. Additionally, they may play a major role for the suppression of subjacent convective cloud development.
Christof G. Beer, Johannes Hendricks, Mattia Righi, Bernd Heinold, Ina Tegen, Silke Groß, Daniel Sauer, Adrian Walser, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 4287–4303, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, 2020
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Mineral dust aerosol plays an important role in the climate system. Previously, dust emissions have often been represented in global models by prescribed monthly-mean emission fields representative of a specific year. We now apply an online calculation of wind-driven dust emissions. This results in an improved agreement with observations, due to a better representation of the highly variable dust emissions. Increasing the model resolution led to an additional performance gain.
Lucas Höppler, Felix Gödde, Manuel Gutleben, Tobias Kölling, Bernhard Mayer, and Tobias Zinner
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2020-49, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2020-49, 2020
Publication in AMT not foreseen
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Clouds are considered as two-dimensional in many climate and weather models. This approach creates errors due to wrongly calculated solar or terrestrial radiative transfer. In order to reduce these errors, realistic three-dimensional clouds need to be retrieved or reproduced. This paper shows an approach to retrieve realistic three-dimensional clouds from an airplane, by combining the strengths of several active and passive remote sensing instruments.
Pascal Polonik, Christoph Knote, Tobias Zinner, Florian Ewald, Tobias Kölling, Bernhard Mayer, Meinrat O. Andreae, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Thomas Klimach, Christoph Mahnke, Sergej Molleker, Christopher Pöhlker, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, Christiane Voigt, Ralf Weigel, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1591–1605, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1591-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1591-2020, 2020
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A realistic representation of cloud–aerosol interactions is central to accurate climate projections. Here we combine observations collected during the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign with chemistry-transport simulations to evaluate the model’s ability to represent the indirect effects of biomass burning aerosol on cloud microphysics. We find an upper limit for the model sensitivity on cloud condensation nuclei concentrations well below the levels reached during the burning season in the Amazon Basin.
Carlos Toledano, Benjamín Torres, Cristian Velasco-Merino, Dietrich Althausen, Silke Groß, Matthias Wiegner, Bernadett Weinzierl, Josef Gasteiger, Albert Ansmann, Ramiro González, David Mateos, David Farrel, Thomas Müller, Moritz Haarig, and Victoria E. Cachorro
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 14571–14583, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14571-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14571-2019, 2019
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Ground-based sun photometers have been used to analyze the properties of long-range transported Saharan dust over Barbados. The measurements were carried out as part of the Saharan Aerosol Long-Range Transport and Aerosol–Cloud-Interaction Experiment (SALTRACE), carried out in the Caribbean in 2013. A variety of instruments, ground-based and airborne, were used in this research. In this paper, the sun photometer data are presented and related to data collected from other co-located instruments.
Eleni Marinou, Matthias Tesche, Athanasios Nenes, Albert Ansmann, Jann Schrod, Dimitra Mamali, Alexandra Tsekeri, Michael Pikridas, Holger Baars, Ronny Engelmann, Kalliopi-Artemis Voudouri, Stavros Solomos, Jean Sciare, Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11315–11342, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11315-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11315-2019, 2019
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We assess the feasibility of ground-based and spaceborne lidars to retrieve profiles of cloud-relevant aerosol concentrations and ice-nucleating particles. The retrieved profiles are in good agreement with airborne in situ measurements. Our methodology will be applied to satellite observations in the future so as to provide a global 3D product of cloud-relevant properties.
Manuel Gutleben, Silke Groß, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10659–10673, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10659-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10659-2019, 2019
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This study concentrates on airborne lidar measurements conducted during the NARVAL field experiments over the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean to study differences between shallow marine cloud macro-physical properties (i.e. cloud fraction, cloud top height, cloud length, cloud gap length) in Saharan-dust-laden and dust-free trade wind regions. Cloud top heights, cloud fractions and cloud lengths are found to be lower and smaller in Saharan-dust-laden compared to dust-free regions.
Heike Konow, Marek Jacob, Felix Ament, Susanne Crewell, Florian Ewald, Martin Hagen, Lutz Hirsch, Friedhelm Jansen, Mario Mech, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 921–934, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-921-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-921-2019, 2019
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High-resolution measurements of maritime clouds are relatively scarce. Airborne cloud radar, microwave radiometer and dropsonde observations are used to expand these data. The measurements are unified into one data set to enable easy joint analyses of several or all instruments together to gain insight into cloud properties and atmospheric state. The data set contains measurements from four campaigns between December 2013 and October 2016 over the tropical and midlatitude Atlantic.
Quitterie Cazenave, Marie Ceccaldi, Julien Delanoë, Jacques Pelon, Silke Groß, and Andrew Heymsfield
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2819–2835, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2819-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2819-2019, 2019
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The impact of ice clouds on the water cycle and radiative budget is still uncertain due to the complexity of cloud processes that makes it difficult to acquire adequate observations of ice cloud properties and parameterize them into climate and weather prediction models. In this paper we present the latest refinements brought to the DARDAR-CLOUD product, which contains ice cloud microphysical properties retrieved from the cloud radar and lidar measurements from the A-Train space mission.
Florian Ewald, Silke Groß, Martin Hagen, Lutz Hirsch, Julien Delanoë, and Matthias Bauer-Pfundstein
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1815–1839, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1815-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1815-2019, 2019
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This study gives a summary of lessons learned during the absolute calibration of the airborne, high-power Ka-band cloud radar HAMP MIRA on board the German research aircraft HALO. The first part covers the internal calibration of the instrument where individual instrument components are characterized in the laboratory. In the second part, the internal calibration is validated with external reference sources like the ocean surface backscatter and different air- and spaceborne cloud radars.
Tobias Zinner, Ulrich Schwarz, Tobias Kölling, Florian Ewald, Evelyn Jäkel, Bernhard Mayer, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1167–1181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1167-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1167-2019, 2019
Florian Ewald, Tobias Zinner, Tobias Kölling, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1183–1206, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1183-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1183-2019, 2019
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This paper presents a new method for gaining insights into the vertical evolution of cloud droplet effective radii by using reflected solar radiation from cloud sides. The paper investigates how bi-spectral effective radius retrievals are affected by unknown cloud surface orientations and presents a method to mitigate this effect. Based on these findings, this study develops a statistical effective radius retrieval for airborne, side-looking imaging sensors.
Tobias Kölling, Tobias Zinner, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1155–1166, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1155-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1155-2019, 2019
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Imaging technology allows us to quickly gather information on larger cloud fields. Unlike using lidar or radar, it is difficult to obtain accurate position information about the observed clouds. This work presents a method to retrieve the missing position information using RGB images from an airborne video camera. Using field campaign data, we observe and explain a median offset of 126 m compared to lidar data and show that systematic errors across the measurement swath are well below 50 m.
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15623–15641, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, 2018
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The 2015–2016 stratospheric winter was the coldest in the 36-year climatological data record. The extreme conditions promoted the formation of persistent Arctic polar stratospheric ice clouds. An extended ice PSC detected by airborne lidar in January 2016 shows a second mode with higher particle depolarization ratios. Back-trajectories from the high-depol ice matched to CALIOP PSC curtains provide evidence for ice nucleation on NAT. The novel data consolidate our understanding of PSC formation.
Volker Freudenthaler, Holger Linné, Anatoli Chaikovski, Dieter Rabus, and Silke Groß
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2017-395, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2017-395, 2018
Revised manuscript has not been submitted
Moritz Haarig, Albert Ansmann, Dietrich Althausen, André Klepel, Silke Groß, Volker Freudenthaler, Carlos Toledano, Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri, David A. Farrell, Damien A. Prescod, Eleni Marinou, Sharon P. Burton, Josef Gasteiger, Ronny Engelmann, and Holger Baars
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10767–10794, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10767-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10767-2017, 2017
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Our measurements performed with a lidar on Barbados give a vertical profile of Saharan dust, which was transported over 5000 km across the Atlantic. The new triple-wavelength depolarization technique reveals more information about the shape and size of dust, which will improve our understanding of the aging process of dust in the atmosphere and its representation in dust models. Changing properties of dust particles influence the solar radiation and the cloud properties and thus our climate.
Evelyn Jäkel, Manfred Wendisch, Trismono C. Krisna, Florian Ewald, Tobias Kölling, Tina Jurkat, Christiane Voigt, Micael A. Cecchini, Luiz A. T. Machado, Armin Afchine, Anja Costa, Martina Krämer, Meinrat O. Andreae, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9049–9066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9049-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9049-2017, 2017
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Vertical profiles of the cloud particle phase state in tropical deep convective clouds (DCCs) were investigated using airborne imaging spectrometer measurements during the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign, which was conducted over the Brazilian rainforest in September 2014. A phase discrimination retrieval was applied to observations of clouds formed in different aerosol conditions. The profiles were compared to in situ and satellite measurements.
Benedikt Urbanek, Silke Groß, Andreas Schäfler, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1653–1664, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1653-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1653-2017, 2017
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Cirrus evolution from nucleation to cloud breakup can be investigated with a novel classification scheme based on airborne lidar data. Applying it to a case study from the ML-CIRRUS campaign, we investigate the impact of large-scale dynamics and small-scale gravity lee waves on the detailed spatial distribution of evolution stages in individual clouds. Our scheme may help to gain more insights in optical and radiative properties of cirrus under various formation and life cycle conditions.
Carolin Klinger, Bernhard Mayer, Fabian Jakub, Tobias Zinner, Seung-Bu Park, and Pierre Gentine
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 5477–5500, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5477-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5477-2017, 2017
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Radiation is driving weather and climate. Yet, the effect of radiation on clouds is not fully understood and often only poorly represented in models. Better understanding and better parameterizations of the radiation–cloud interaction are therefore essential. Using our newly developed fast
neighboring column approximationfor 3-D thermal heating and cooling rates, we show that thermal radiation changes cloud circulation and causes organization and a deepening of the clouds.
Tobias Sirch, Luca Bugliaro, Tobias Zinner, Matthias Möhrlein, and Margarita Vazquez-Navarro
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 409–429, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-409-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-409-2017, 2017
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A novel approach for the nowcasting of clouds and direct normal irradiance (DNI) based on the geostationary satellite MSG is presented. The basis of the algorithm is an optical flow method to derive cloud motion vectors for low and high level clouds separately. DNI is calculated from the forecasted optical thickness of the clouds. Validation against MSG observations shows good performance: compared to persistence an improvement of forecast horizon by a factor of 2 is reached for 2 h forecasts.
Josef Gasteiger, Silke Groß, Daniel Sauer, Moritz Haarig, Albert Ansmann, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 297–311, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-297-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-297-2017, 2017
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To study aerosol transport in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) from Africa to the Caribbean, we combine advanced optical models of Saharan aerosols with Stokes settling and two hypotheses about the occurrence of vertical mixing. By testing our hypotheses with lidar and in situ profiles measured near the top of the transported SAL, we find strong evidence that vertical mixing occurs in the SAL over the Atlantic with significant consequences for size distribution of the transported Saharan aerosols.
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The letter describes unprecedented observations of widespread and persistent polar stratospheric ice clouds (ice PSCs) in the exceptionally cold Arctic stratospheric winter 2015/16. The unique observations are of global relevance because trends in Arctic ozone loss and in polar temperatures are highly uncertain. The new observations at cold conditions serve to enhance our knowledge on ice PSC formation, Arctic ozone loss and polar stratrospheric temperatures in a changing climate.
Manuel Gutleben, Silke Gross, Martin Wirth, and Andreas Schäfler
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2016-333, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2016-333, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Shallow marine cumulus convection over the Atlantic ocean is studied with observations by airborne and spaceborne lidar instruments. Cloud top height as well as cloud length and cloud gap length distributions are calculated by use of a newly developed algorithm. The distribution of cloud top heights during wintertime measurements shows a two-layer structure. However, significant differences in cloud top height distributions compared to summertime measurements are found.
Tobias Zinner, Petra Hausmann, Florian Ewald, Luca Bugliaro, Claudia Emde, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4615–4632, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4615-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4615-2016, 2016
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A new retrieval of optical thickness and effective particle size of ice clouds over a wide range of optical thickness from transmittance measurements is presented. A visible range spectral slope is used to resolve the transmittance optical thickness ambiguity. Retrieval sensitivity to ice crystal habit, aerosol, albedo, sensor accuracy and lookup table interpolation is presented as well as an application of the method and comparison to satellite products for 2 days.
Silke Groß, Josef Gasteiger, Volker Freudenthaler, Thomas Müller, Daniel Sauer, Carlos Toledano, and Albert Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11535–11546, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11535-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11535-2016, 2016
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Dual-wavelength depolarization sensitive Raman lidar measurements were used to characterize the optical properties of the dust loaded convective boundary layer over the Caribbean. Furthermore we derived the dust volume fraction and dust mass concentration within the convective boundary layer.
Florian Ewald, Tobias Kölling, Andreas Baumgartner, Tobias Zinner, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2015–2042, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2015-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2015-2016, 2016
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The new spectrometer of the Munich Aerosol Cloud Scanner (specMACS) is a
multipurpose hyperspectral cloud and sky imager which is designated, but not limited, to investigations of cloud-aerosol interactions in Earth's atmosphere. This paper describes the specMACS instrument's hardware and software design and
characterizes the instrument performance. Initial measurements of cloud sides are presented which demonstrate the wide applicability of the instrument.
Ulla Wandinger, Volker Freudenthaler, Holger Baars, Aldo Amodeo, Ronny Engelmann, Ina Mattis, Silke Groß, Gelsomina Pappalardo, Aldo Giunta, Giuseppe D'Amico, Anatoli Chaikovsky, Fiodor Osipenko, Alexander Slesar, Doina Nicolae, Livio Belegante, Camelia Talianu, Ilya Serikov, Holger Linné, Friedhelm Jansen, Arnoud Apituley, Keith M. Wilson, Martin de Graaf, Thomas Trickl, Helmut Giehl, Mariana Adam, Adolfo Comerón, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Francesc Rocadenbosch, Michaël Sicard, Sergio Tomás, Diego Lange, Dhiraj Kumar, Manuel Pujadas, Francisco Molero, Alfonso J. Fernández, Lucas Alados-Arboledas, Juan Antonio Bravo-Aranda, Francisco Navas-Guzmán, Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado, María José Granados-Muñoz, Jana Preißler, Frank Wagner, Michael Gausa, Ivan Grigorov, Dimitar Stoyanov, Marco Iarlori, Vincenco Rizi, Nicola Spinelli, Antonella Boselli, Xuan Wang, Teresa Lo Feudo, Maria Rita Perrone, Ferdinando De Tomasi, and Pasquale Burlizzi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1001–1023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1001-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1001-2016, 2016
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We introduce the quality-assurance efforts of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) at instrument level. Within several campaigns, 21 EARLINET systems from 18 EARLINET stations were intercompared. A comprehensive strategy for campaign setup and data evaluation was established. The intercomparisons have reinforced our confidence in the EARLINET data quality and allowed us to draw conclusions on necessary system improvements and to identify major challenges for our future work.
S. Groß, V. Freudenthaler, K. Schepanski, C. Toledano, A. Schäfler, A. Ansmann, and B. Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11067–11080, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11067-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11067-2015, 2015
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In June and July 2013 dual-wavelength lidar measurements were performed in Barbados to study long-range transported Saharan dust across the Atlantic Ocean and investigate transport-induced changes. The focus of our measurements is the intensive optical properties, the lidar ratio and the particle linear depolarization ratio. While the lidar ratio shows no differences compared to the values of fresh Saharan dust, the particle linear depolarization ratio shows slight differences.
F. Chouza, O. Reitebuch, S. Groß, S. Rahm, V. Freudenthaler, C. Toledano, and B. Weinzierl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2909–2926, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2909-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2909-2015, 2015
F. Ewald, C. Winkler, and T. Zinner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2491–2508, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2491-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2491-2015, 2015
M. Mech, E. Orlandi, S. Crewell, F. Ament, L. Hirsch, M. Hagen, G. Peters, and B. Stevens
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4539–4553, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4539-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4539-2014, 2014
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Here the High Altitude and LOng range research aircraft Microwave Package (HAMP) is introduced. The package consists
of three passive radiometer modules with 26 channels between 22
and 183 GHz and a 36 GHz Doppler cloud radar. The manuscript
describes the instrument specifications, the installation in the aircraft, and the operation. Furthermore, results from simulation
and retrieval studies, as well as measurements from a first test
campaign, are shown.
S. Groß, M. Wirth, A. Schäfler, A. Fix, S. Kaufmann, and C. Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2745–2755, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2745-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2745-2014, 2014
D. Merk and T. Zinner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1903–1918, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1903-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1903-2013, 2013
T. Zinner, C. Forster, E. de Coning, and H.-D. Betz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1567–1583, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1567-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1567-2013, 2013
G. Pappalardo, L. Mona, G. D'Amico, U. Wandinger, M. Adam, A. Amodeo, A. Ansmann, A. Apituley, L. Alados Arboledas, D. Balis, A. Boselli, J. A. Bravo-Aranda, A. Chaikovsky, A. Comeron, J. Cuesta, F. De Tomasi, V. Freudenthaler, M. Gausa, E. Giannakaki, H. Giehl, A. Giunta, I. Grigorov, S. Groß, M. Haeffelin, A. Hiebsch, M. Iarlori, D. Lange, H. Linné, F. Madonna, I. Mattis, R.-E. Mamouri, M. A. P. McAuliffe, V. Mitev, F. Molero, F. Navas-Guzman, D. Nicolae, A. Papayannis, M. R. Perrone, C. Pietras, A. Pietruczuk, G. Pisani, J. Preißler, M. Pujadas, V. Rizi, A. A. Ruth, J. Schmidt, F. Schnell, P. Seifert, I. Serikov, M. Sicard, V. Simeonov, N. Spinelli, K. Stebel, M. Tesche, T. Trickl, X. Wang, F. Wagner, M. Wiegner, and K. M. Wilson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 4429–4450, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-4429-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-4429-2013, 2013
S. Groß, M. Esselborn, B. Weinzierl, M. Wirth, A. Fix, and A. Petzold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2487–2505, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2487-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2487-2013, 2013
S. Groß, M. Esselborn, F. Abicht, M. Wirth, A. Fix, and A. Minikin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2435–2444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2435-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2435-2013, 2013
F. Ewald, L. Bugliaro, H. Mannstein, and B. Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 309–322, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-309-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-309-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
A cloud-by-cloud approach for studying aerosol–cloud interaction in satellite observations
Geometrical and optical properties of cirrus clouds in Barcelona, Spain: analysis with the two-way transmittance method of 4 years of lidar measurements
Determination of the vertical distribution of in-cloud particle shape using SLDR-mode 35 GHz scanning cloud radar
Artificial intelligence (AI)-derived 3D cloud tomography from geostationary 2D satellite data
The EarthCARE mission: science data processing chain overview
Cloud optical and physical properties retrieval from EarthCARE multi-spectral imager: the M-COP products
Lidar-radar synergistic method to retrieve ice, supercooled and mixed-phase clouds properties
Deriving cloud droplet number concentration from surface based remote sensors with an emphasis on lidar measurements
Cloud top heights and aerosol columnar properties from combined EarthCARE lidar and imager observations: the AM-CTH and AM-ACD products
Raman lidar-derived optical and microphysical properties of ice crystals within thin Arctic clouds during PARCS campaign
Evaluation of four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration in marine stratocumulus with aircraft in situ measurements
Identification of ice-over-water multilayer clouds using multispectral satellite data in an artificial neural network
Deep convective cloud system size and structure across the global tropics and subtropics
A neural-network-based method for generating synthetic 1.6 µm near-infrared satellite images
Numerical model generation of test frames for pre-launch studies of EarthCARE's retrieval algorithms and data management system
Segmentation of polarimetric radar imagery using statistical texture
A new approach to the crystal habit retrieval from far infrared spectral radiance measurements
Retrieval of surface solar irradiance from satellite imagery using machine learning: pitfalls and perspectives
Retrieving 3D distributions of atmospheric particles using Atmospheric Tomography with 3D Radiative Transfer – Part 2: Local optimization
Particle inertial effects on radar Doppler spectra simulation
Detection of aerosol and cloud features for the EarthCARE atmospheric lidar (ATLID): the ATLID FeatureMask (A-FM) product
A unified synergistic retrieval of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation from EarthCARE: the ACM-CAP product
Incorporating EarthCARE observations into a multi-lidar cloud climate record: the ATLID (Atmospheric Lidar) cloud climate product
Introduction to EarthCARE synthetic data using a global storm-resolving simulation
Validation of a camera-based intra-hour irradiance nowcasting model using synthetic cloud data
Liquid cloud optical property retrieval and associated uncertainties using multi-angular and bispectral measurements of the airborne radiometer OSIRIS
Global evaluation of Doppler velocity errors of EarthCARE cloud-profiling radar using a global storm-resolving simulation
Multiple-scattering effects on single-wavelength lidar sounding of multi-layered clouds
Cloud and precipitation microphysical retrievals from the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar: the C-CLD product
Cloud mask algorithm from the EarthCARE Multi-Spectral Imager: the M-CM products
Across-track extension of retrieved cloud and aerosol properties for the EarthCARE mission: the ACMB-3D product
Insights into 3D cloud radiative transfer effects for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory
Evaluation of polarimetric ice microphysical retrievals with OLYMPEX campaign data
Retrieving 3D distributions of atmospheric particles using Atmospheric Tomography with 3D Radiative Transfer – Part 1: Model description and Jacobian calculation
Simulation and sensitivity analysis for cloud and precipitation measurements via spaceborne millimeter-wave radar
The Virga-Sniffer – a new tool to identify precipitation evaporation using ground-based remote-sensing observations
Near-global distributions of overshooting tops derived from Terra and Aqua MODIS observations
Climatology of estimated liquid water content and scaling factor for warm clouds using radar–microwave radiometer synergy
Optimizing cloud motion estimation on the edge with phase correlation and optical flow
A semi-Lagrangian method for detecting and tracking deep convective clouds in geostationary satellite observations
The CHROMA cloud-top pressure retrieval algorithm for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission
High-spatial-resolution retrieval of cloud droplet size distribution from polarized observations of the cloudbow
Evaluation of the spectral misalignment on the Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer/multi-spectral imager cloud product
Retrieval of terahertz ice cloud properties from airborne measurements based on the irregularly shaped Voronoi ice scattering models
Latent heating profiles from GOES-16 and its impacts on precipitation forecasts
A CO2-independent cloud mask from Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) radiances for climate applications
Retrieval of ice water path from the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MWHS) aboard FengYun-3B (FY-3B) satellite polarimetric measurements based on a deep neural network
Intercomparison of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI cloud products for tropospheric trace gas retrievals
Improved spectral processing for a multi-mode pulse compression Ka–Ku-band cloud radar system
Uncertainty-bounded estimates of ash cloud properties using the ORAC algorithm: application to the 2019 Raikoke eruption
Fani Alexandri, Felix Müller, Goutam Choudhury, Peggy Achtert, Torsten Seelig, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1739–1757, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1739-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1739-2024, 2024
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We present a novel method for studying aerosol–cloud interactions. It combines cloud-relevant aerosol concentrations from polar-orbiting lidar observations with the development of individual clouds from geostationary observations. Application to 1 year of data gives first results on the impact of aerosols on the concentration and size of cloud droplets and on cloud phase in the regime of heterogeneous ice formation. The method could enable the systematic investigation of warm and cold clouds.
Cristina Gil-Díaz, Michäel Sicard, Adolfo Comerón, Daniel Camilo Fortunato dos Santos Oliveira, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Jasper R. Lewis, Ellsworth J. Welton, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1197–1216, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, 2024
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In this paper, a statistical study of cirrus geometrical and optical properties based on 4 years of continuous ground-based lidar measurements with the Barcelona (Spain) Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) is analysed. The cloud optical depth, effective column lidar ratio and linear cloud depolarisation ratio have been calculated by a new approach to the two-way transmittance method, which is valid for both ground-based and spaceborne lidar systems. Their associated errors are also provided.
Audrey Teisseire, Patric Seifert, Alexander Myagkov, Johannes Bühl, and Martin Radenz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 999–1016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-999-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-999-2024, 2024
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The vertical distribution of particle shape (VDPS) method, introduced in this study, aids in characterizing the density-weighted shape of cloud particles from scanning slanted linear depolarization ratio (SLDR)-mode cloud radar observations. The VDPS approach represents a new, versatile way to study microphysical processes by combining a spheroidal scattering model with real measurements of SLDR.
Sarah Brüning, Stefan Niebler, and Holger Tost
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 961–978, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-961-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-961-2024, 2024
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We apply the Res-UNet to derive a comprehensive 3D cloud tomography from 2D satellite data over heterogeneous landscapes. We combine observational data from passive and active remote sensing sensors by an automated matching algorithm. These data are fed into a neural network to predict cloud reflectivities on the whole satellite domain between 2.4 and 24 km height. With an average RMSE of 2.99 dBZ, we contribute to closing data gaps in the representation of clouds in observational data.
Michael Eisinger, Fabien Marnas, Kotska Wallace, Takuji Kubota, Nobuhiro Tomiyama, Yuichi Ohno, Toshiyuki Tanaka, Eichi Tomita, Tobias Wehr, and Dirk Bernaerts
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 839–862, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-839-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-839-2024, 2024
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The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) is an ESA–JAXA satellite mission to be launched in 2024. We presented an overview of the EarthCARE processors' development, with processors developed by teams in Europe, Japan, and Canada. EarthCARE will allow scientists to evaluate the representation of cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiative flux in weather forecast and climate models, with the objective to better understand cloud processes and improve weather and climate models.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Hartwig Deneke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 261–276, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, 2024
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The ESA cloud, aerosol and radiation mission EarthCARE will provide active profiling and passive imaging measurements from a single satellite platform. The passive multi-spectral imager (MSI) will add information in the across-track direction. We present the cloud optical and physical properties algorithm, which combines the visible to infrared MSI channels to determine the cloud top pressure, optical thickness, particle size and water path.
Clémantyne Aubry, Julien Delanoë, Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, Frédéric Tridon, Olivier Jourdan, and Guillaume Mioche
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-252, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-252, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The radar-lidar synergy is used to retrieve ice, supercooled water and mixed-phase clouds properties, making the most of the radar sensitivity to ice crystals and the lidar to the supercooled droplets. First analysis of the output of the algorithm run on the satellite data is compared with in situ data during an airborne Arctic field campaign, giving a mean percent error of 49 % for liquid water content and 75 % for ice water content.
Gerald Mace
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2606, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2606, 2023
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The number of cloud droplets, Nd, in a cloud is important for understanding aerosol-cloud interaction. In this study we develop techniques to derive cloud droplet number concentration from lidar measurements combined with other remote sensing measurements such as cloud radar and microwave radiometer. We show that the deriving Nd is very uncertain although a synergistic algorithm seems to produce useful characterizations of Nd and effective particle size.
Moritz Haarig, Anja Hünerbein, Ulla Wandinger, Nicole Docter, Sebastian Bley, David Donovan, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5953–5975, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, 2023
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The atmospheric lidar (ATLID) and Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) will be carried by the EarthCARE satellite. The synergistic ATLID–MSI Column Products (AM-COL) algorithm described in the paper combines the strengths of ATLID in vertically resolved profiles of aerosol and clouds (e.g., cloud top height) with the strengths of MSI in observing the complete scene beside the satellite track and in extending the lidar information to the swath. The algorithm is validated against simulated test scenes.
Patrick Chazette and Jean-Christophe Raut
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5847–5861, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5847-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5847-2023, 2023
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The vertical profiles of the effective radii of ice crystals and ice water content in Arctic semi-transparent stratiform clouds were assessed using quantitative ground-based lidar measurements. The field campaign was part of the Pollution in the ARCtic System (PARCS) project which took place from 13 to 26 May 2016 in Hammerfest (70° 39′ 48″ N, 23° 41′ 00″ E). We show that under certain cloud conditions, lidar measurement combined with a dedicated algorithmic approach is an efficient tool.
Damao Zhang, Andrew M. Vogelmann, Fan Yang, Edward Luke, Pavlos Kollias, Zhien Wang, Peng Wu, William I. Gustafson Jr., Fan Mei, Susanne Glienke, Jason Tomlinson, and Neel Desai
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5827–5846, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023, 2023
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Cloud droplet number concentration can be retrieved from remote sensing measurements. Aircraft measurements are used to validate four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration. We demonstrate that retrieved cloud droplet number concentrations align well with aircraft measurements for overcast clouds, but they may substantially differ for broken clouds. The ensemble of various retrievals can help quantify retrieval uncertainties and identify reliable retrieval scenarios.
Sunny Sun-Mack, Patrick Minnis, Yan Chen, Gang Hong, and William L. Smith Jr.
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2804, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2804, 2023
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Multilayer (ML) clouds affect the radiation budget differently than single-layer (SL) clouds and need to be identified in satellite images. A neural network was trained to identify ML clouds by matching imagery with lidar/radar data. This method correctly identifies ~87 % SL and ML clouds with a net accuracy gain of 7.5 % over snow-free surfaces. It is more accurate than most available methods and constitutes a first step in providing a reasonable 3-D characterization of the cloudy atmosphere.
Eric M. Wilcox, Tianle Yuan, and Hua Song
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5387–5401, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5387-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5387-2023, 2023
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A new database is constructed from over 20 years of satellite records that comprises millions of deep convective clouds and spans the global tropics and subtropics. The database is a collection of clouds ranging from isolated cells to giant cloud systems. The cloud database provides a means of empirically studying the factors that determine the spatial structure and coverage of convective cloud systems, which are strongly related to the overall radiative forcing by cloud systems.
Florian Baur, Leonhard Scheck, Christina Stumpf, Christina Köpken-Watts, and Roland Potthast
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5305–5326, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5305-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5305-2023, 2023
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Near-infrared satellite images have information on clouds that is complementary to what is available from the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum. Using this information for data assimilation and model evaluation requires a fast, accurate forward operator to compute synthetic images from numerical weather prediction model output. We discuss a novel, neural-network-based approach for the 1.6 µm near-infrared channel that is suitable for this purpose and also works for other solar channels.
Zhipeng Qu, David P. Donovan, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Mark W. Shephard, and Vincent Huijnen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4927–4946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, 2023
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The EarthCARE satellite mission Level 2 algorithm development requires realistic 3D cloud and aerosol scenes along the satellite orbits. One of the best ways to produce these scenes is to use a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model to simulate atmospheric conditions at 250 m horizontal resolution. This paper describes the production and validation of three EarthCARE test scenes.
Adrien Guyot, Jordan P. Brook, Alain Protat, Kathryn Turner, Joshua Soderholm, Nicholas F. McCarthy, and Hamish McGowan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4571–4588, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4571-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4571-2023, 2023
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We propose a new method that should facilitate the use of weather radars to study wildfires. It is important to be able to identify the particles emitted by wildfires on radar, but it is difficult because there are many other echoes on radar like clear air, the ground, sea clutter, and precipitation. We came up with a two-step process to classify these echoes. Our method is accurate and can be used by fire departments in emergencies or by scientists for research.
Gianluca Di Natale, Marco Ridolfi, and Luca Palchetti
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2260, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2260, 2023
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This work aims to define a new approach to retrieve from spectral infrared measurements the distribution of the main ice crystal shapes occurring inside ice and cirrus clouds. The capability of retrieving from satellites these shapes of the ice crystals in clouds will allow to extend the current available climatologies to be used as physical constrains in the global circulation models. This could could allow to improve their accuracy and prediction performance.
Hadrien Verbois, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Vadim Becquet, Benoit Gschwind, and Philippe Blanc
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4165–4181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4165-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4165-2023, 2023
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Solar surface irradiance (SSI) estimations inferred from satellite images are essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the solar resource, which is crucial in many fields. This study examines the recent data-driven methods for inferring SSI from satellite images and explores their strengths and weaknesses. The results suggest that while these methods show great promise, they sometimes dramatically underperform and should probably be used in conjunction with physical approaches.
Jesse Loveridge, Aviad Levis, Larry Di Girolamo, Vadim Holodovsky, Linda Forster, Anthony B. Davis, and Yoav Y. Schechner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3931–3957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3931-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3931-2023, 2023
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We test a new method for measuring the 3D spatial variations of water within clouds, using measurements of reflections of the Sun's light observed at multiple angles by satellites. This is a great improvement on older methods, which typically assume that clouds occur in a slab shape. Our study used computer modeling to show that our 3D method will work well in cumulus clouds, where older slab methods do not. Our method will inform us about these clouds and their role in our climate.
Zeen Zhu, Pavlos Kollias, and Fan Yang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3727–3737, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3727-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3727-2023, 2023
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We show that large rain droplets, with large inertia, are unable to follow the rapid change of velocity field in a turbulent environment. A lack of consideration for this inertial effect leads to an artificial broadening of the Doppler spectrum from the conventional simulator. Based on the physics-based simulation, we propose a new approach to generate the radar Doppler spectra. This simulator provides a valuable tool to decode cloud microphysical and dynamical properties from radar observation.
Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, David P. Donovan, and Ping Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3631–3651, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3631-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3631-2023, 2023
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The Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation (EarthCARE) satellite mission features the UV lidar ATLID. The ATLID FeatureMask algorithm provides a high-resolution detection probability mask which is used to guide smoothing strategies within the ATLID profile retrieval algorithm, one step further in the EarthCARE level-2 processing chain, in which the microphysical retrievals and target classification are performed.
Shannon L. Mason, Robin J. Hogan, Alessio Bozzo, and Nicola L. Pounder
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3459–3486, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, 2023
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We present a method for accurately estimating the contents and properties of clouds, snow, rain, and aerosols through the atmosphere, using the combined measurements of the radar, lidar, and radiometer instruments aboard the upcoming EarthCARE satellite, and evaluate the performance of the retrieval, using test scenes simulated from a numerical forecast model. When EarthCARE is in operation, these quantities and their estimated uncertainties will be distributed in a data product called ACM-CAP.
Artem G. Feofilov, Hélène Chepfer, Vincent Noël, and Frederic Szczap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3363–3390, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3363-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3363-2023, 2023
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The response of clouds to human-induced climate warming remains the largest source of uncertainty in model predictions of climate. We consider cloud retrievals from spaceborne observations, the existing CALIOP lidar and future ATLID lidar; show how they compare for the same scenes; and discuss the advantage of adding a new lidar for detecting cloud changes in the long run. We show that ATLID's advanced technology should allow for better detecting thinner clouds during daytime than before.
Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, Tempei Hashino, Shuhei Matsugishi, Tomoe Nasuno, and Takuji Kubota
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3331–3344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3331-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3331-2023, 2023
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JAXA EarthCARE synthetic data (JAXA L1 data) were compiled using the global storm-resolving model (GSRM) NICAM (Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral
Atmospheric Model) simulation with 3.5 km horizontal resolution and the Joint-Simulator. JAXA L1 data are intended to support the development of JAXA retrieval algorithms for the EarthCARE sensor before launch of the satellite. The expected orbit of EarthCARE and horizontal sampling of each sensor were used to simulate the signals.
Philipp Gregor, Tobias Zinner, Fabian Jakub, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3257–3271, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3257-2023, 2023
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This work introduces MACIN, a model for short-term forecasting of direct irradiance for solar energy applications. MACIN exploits cloud images of multiple cameras to predict irradiance. The model is applied to artificial images of clouds from a weather model. The artificial cloud data allow for a more in-depth evaluation and attribution of errors compared with real data. Good performance of derived cloud information and significant forecast improvements over a baseline forecast were found.
Christian Matar, Céline Cornet, Frédéric Parol, Laurent C.-Labonnote, Frédérique Auriol, and Marc Nicolas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3221–3243, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3221-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3221-2023, 2023
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The optimal estimation formalism is applied to OSIRIS airborne high-resolution multi-angular measurements to retrieve COT and Reff. The corresponding uncertainties related to measurement errors, which are up to 6 and 12 %, the non-retrieved parameters, which are less than 0.5 %, and the cloud model assumptions show that the heterogeneous vertical profiles and the 3D radiative transfer effects lead to average uncertainties of 5 and 4 % for COT and 13 and 9 % for Reff.
Yuichiro Hagihara, Yuichi Ohno, Hiroaki Horie, Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, and Takuji Kubota
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3211–3219, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3211-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3211-2023, 2023
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The CPR on the EarthCARE satellite is the first satellite-borne Doppler radar. We evaluated the effectiveness of horizontal integration and the unfolding method for the reduction of the Doppler error (the standard deviation of the random error) in the CPR_ECO product. The error was higher in the tropics than in the other latitudes due to frequent rain echo occurrence and limitation of its unfolding correction. If we use low-mode operation (high PRF), the errors become small enough.
Valery Shcherbakov, Frédéric Szczap, Guillaume Mioche, and Céline Cornet
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-109, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-109, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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We performed Monte Carlo simulations of single-wavelength lidar signals from multi-layered clouds with special attention focused on multiple-scattering (MS) effect in regions of the cloud-free molecular atmosphere. The MS effect on lidar signals is always decreasing with the increasing distance from the cloud far edge. The decreasing is the direct consequence of the fact that the forward peak of particles phase functions is much larger than the receiver field of view.
Kamil Mroz, Bernat Puidgomènech Treserras, Alessandro Battaglia, Pavlos Kollias, Aleksandra Tatarevic, and Frederic Tridon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2865–2888, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2865-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2865-2023, 2023
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We present the theoretical basis of the algorithm that estimates the amount of water and size of particles in clouds and precipitation. The algorithm uses data collected by the Cloud Profiling Radar that was developed for the upcoming Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite mission. After the satellite launch, the vertical distribution of cloud and precipitation properties will be delivered as the C-CLD product.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Stefan Horn, Hartwig Deneke, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2821–2836, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, 2023
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The Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) on board the EarthCARE satellite will provide the information needed for describing the cloud and aerosol properties in the cross-track direction, complementing the measurements from the Cloud Profiling Radar, Atmospheric Lidar and Broad-Band Radiometer. The accurate discrimination between clear and cloudy pixels is an essential first step. Therefore, the cloud mask algorithm provides a cloud flag, cloud phase and cloud type product for the MSI observations.
Zhipeng Qu, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, and Mark W. Shephard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2319–2331, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2319-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2319-2023, 2023
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This paper describes EarthCARE’s L2 product ACM-3D. It includes the scene construction algorithm (SCA) used to produce the indexes for reconstructing 3D atmospheric scene based on satellite nadir retrievals. It also provides the information about the buffer zone sizes of 3D assessment domains and the ranking scores for selecting the best 3D assessment domains. These output variables are needed to run 3D radiative transfer models for the radiative closure assessment of EarthCARE’s L2 retrievals.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Sebastian Schmidt, and Steffen Mauceri
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2145–2166, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, 2023
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This paper provides insights into the effects of clouds on Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) measurements of CO2. Calculations are carried out that indicate the extent to which this satellite experiment underestimates CO2, due to these cloud effects, as a function of the distance between the surface observation footprint and the nearest cloud. The paper discusses how to lessen the influence of these cloud effects.
Armin Blanke, Andrew J. Heymsfield, Manuel Moser, and Silke Trömel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2089–2106, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2089-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2089-2023, 2023
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We present an evaluation of current retrieval techniques in the ice phase applied to polarimetric radar measurements with collocated in situ observations of aircraft conducted over the Olympic Mountains, Washington State, during winter 2015. Radar estimates of ice properties agreed most with aircraft observations in regions with pronounced radar signatures, but uncertainties were identified that indicate issues of some retrievals, particularly in warmer temperature regimes.
Jesse Loveridge, Aviad Levis, Larry Di Girolamo, Vadim Holodovsky, Linda Forster, Anthony B. Davis, and Yoav Y. Schechner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1803–1847, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1803-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1803-2023, 2023
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We describe a new method for measuring the 3D spatial variations in water within clouds using the reflected light of the Sun viewed at multiple different angles by satellites. This is a great improvement over older methods, which typically assume that clouds occur in a slab shape. Our study used computer modeling to show that our 3D method will work well in cumulus clouds, where older slab methods do not. Our method will inform us about these clouds and their role in our climate.
Leilei Kou, Zhengjian Lin, Haiyang Gao, Shujun Liao, and Piman Ding
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1723–1744, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1723-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1723-2023, 2023
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Forward modeling of spaceborne millimeter-wave radar composed of eight submodules is presented. We quantify the uncertainties in radar reflectivity that may be caused by the physical model parameters via a sensitivity analysis. The simulations with improved and conventional settings are compared with CloudSat data, and the simulation results are evaluated and analyzed. The results are instructive to the optimization of forward modeling and microphysical parameter retrieval.
Heike Kalesse-Los, Anton Kötsche, Andreas Foth, Johannes Röttenbacher, Teresa Vogl, and Jonas Witthuhn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1683–1704, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1683-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1683-2023, 2023
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The Virga-Sniffer, a new modular open-source Python package tool to characterize full precipitation evaporation (so-called virga) from ceilometer cloud base height and vertically pointing cloud radar reflectivity time–height fields, is described. Results of its first application to RV Meteor observations during the EUREC4A field experiment in January–February 2020 are shown. About half of all detected clouds with bases below the trade inversion height were found to produce virga.
Yulan Hong, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Robert J. Trapp, and Larry Di Girolamo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1391–1406, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1391-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1391-2023, 2023
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Deep convective updrafts form overshooting tops (OTs) when they extend into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. An OT often indicates hazardous weather conditions. The global distribution of OTs is useful for understanding global severe weather conditions. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Aqua and Terra satellites provides 2 decades of records on the Earth–atmosphere system with stable orbits, which are used in this study to derive 20-year OT climatology.
Pragya Vishwakarma, Julien Delanoë, Susana Jorquera, Pauline Martinet, Frederic Burnet, Alistair Bell, and Jean-Charles Dupont
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1211–1237, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1211-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1211-2023, 2023
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Cloud observations are necessary to characterize the cloud properties at local and global scales. The observations must be translated to cloud geophysical parameters. This paper presents the estimation of liquid water content (LWC) using radar and microwave radiometer (MWR) measurements. Liquid water path from MWR scales LWC and retrieves the scaling factor (ln a). The retrievals are compared with in situ observations. A climatology of ln a is built to estimate LWC using only radar information.
Bhupendra A. Raut, Paytsar Muradyan, Rajesh Sankaran, Robert C. Jackson, Seongha Park, Sean A. Shahkarami, Dario Dematties, Yongho Kim, Joseph Swantek, Neal Conrad, Wolfgang Gerlach, Sergey Shemyakin, Pete Beckman, Nicola J. Ferrier, and Scott M. Collis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1195–1209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1195-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1195-2023, 2023
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We studied the stability of a blockwise phase correlation (PC) method to estimate cloud motion using a total sky imager (TSI). Shorter frame intervals and larger block sizes improve stability, while image resolution and color channels have minor effects. Raindrop contamination can be identified by the rotational motion of the TSI mirror. The correlations of cloud motion vectors (CMVs) from the PC method with wind data vary from 0.38 to 0.59. Optical flow vectors are more stable than PC vectors.
William K. Jones, Matthew W. Christensen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1043–1059, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, 2023
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Geostationary weather satellites have been used to detect storm clouds since their earliest applications. However, this task remains difficult as imaging satellites cannot observe the strong vertical winds that are characteristic of storm clouds. Here we introduce a new method that allows us to detect the early development of storms and continue to track them throughout their lifetime, allowing us to study how their early behaviour affects subsequent weather.
Andrew M. Sayer, Luca Lelli, Brian Cairns, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Amir Ibrahim, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Sergey Korkin, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 969–996, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023, 2023
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This paper presents a method to estimate the height of the top of clouds above Earth's surface using satellite measurements. It is based on light absorption by oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which darkens the signal that a satellite will see at certain wavelengths of light. Clouds "shield" the satellite from some of this darkening, dependent on cloud height (and other factors), because clouds scatter light at these wavelengths. The method will be applied to the future NASA PACE mission.
Veronika Pörtge, Tobias Kölling, Anna Weber, Lea Volkmer, Claudia Emde, Tobias Zinner, Linda Forster, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 645–667, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-645-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-645-2023, 2023
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In this work, we analyze polarized cloudbow observations by the airborne camera system specMACS to retrieve the cloud droplet size distribution defined by the effective radius (reff) and the effective variance (veff). Two case studies of trade-wind cumulus clouds observed during the EUREC4A field campaign are presented. The results are combined into maps of reff and veff with a very high spatial resolution (100 m × 100 m) that allow new insights into cloud microphysics.
Minrui Wang, Takashi Y. Nakajima, Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, Kentaroh Suzuki, Takuji Kubota, and Mayumi Yoshida
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 603–623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-603-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-603-2023, 2023
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SMILE (a spectral misalignment in which a shift in the center wavelength appears as a distortion in the spectral image) was detected during our recent work. To evaluate how it affects the cloud retrieval products, we did a simulation of EarthCARE-MSI forward radiation, evaluating the error in simulated scenes from a global cloud system-resolving model and a satellite simulator. Our results indicated that the error from SMILE was generally small and negligible for oceanic scenes.
Ming Li, Husi Letu, Hiroshi Ishimoto, Shulei Li, Lei Liu, Takashi Y. Nakajima, Dabin Ji, Huazhe Shang, and Chong Shi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 331–353, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-331-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-331-2023, 2023
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Influenced by the representativeness of ice crystal scattering models, the existing terahertz ice cloud remote sensing inversion algorithms still have significant uncertainties. We developed an ice cloud remote sensing retrieval algorithm of the ice water path and particle size from aircraft-based terahertz radiation measurements based on the Voronoi model. Validation revealed that the Voronoi model performs better than the sphere and hexagonal column models.
Yoonjin Lee, Christian D. Kummerow, and Milija Zupanski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7119–7136, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7119-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7119-2022, 2022
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Vertical profiles of latent heating are derived from GOES-16 to be used in convective initialization. They are compared with other latent heating products derived from NEXRAD and GPM satellites, and the results show that their values are very similar to the radar-derived products. Finally, using latent heating derived from GOES-16 for convective initialization shows improvements in precipitation forecasts, which are comparable to the results using latent heating derived from NEXRAD.
Simon Whitburn, Lieven Clarisse, Marc Crapeau, Thomas August, Tim Hultberg, Pierre François Coheur, and Cathy Clerbaux
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6653–6668, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6653-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6653-2022, 2022
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With more than 15 years of measurements, the IASI radiance dataset is becoming a reference climate data record. Its exploitation for satellite applications requires an accurate and unbiased detection of cloud scenes. Here, we present a new cloud detection algorithm for IASI that is both sensitive and consistent over time. It is based on the use of a neural network, relying on IASI radiance information only and taking as a reference the last version of the operational IASI L2 cloud product.
Wenyu Wang, Zhenzhan Wang, Qiurui He, and Lanjie Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6489–6506, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6489-2022, 2022
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This paper uses a neural network approach to retrieve the ice water path from FY-3B/MWHS polarimetric measurements, focusing on its unique 150 GHz quasi-polarized channels. The Level 2 product of CloudSat is used as the reference value for the neural network. The results show that the polarization information is helpful for the retrieval in scenes with thicker cloud ice, and the 150 GHz channels give a significant improvement compared to using only 183 GHz channels.
Miriam Latsch, Andreas Richter, Henk Eskes, Maarten Sneep, Ping Wang, Pepijn Veefkind, Ronny Lutz, Diego Loyola, Athina Argyrouli, Pieter Valks, Thomas Wagner, Holger Sihler, Michel van Roozendael, Nicolas Theys, Huan Yu, Richard Siddans, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6257–6283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6257-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6257-2022, 2022
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The article investigates different S5P TROPOMI cloud retrieval algorithms for tropospheric trace gas retrievals. The cloud products show differences primarily over snow and ice and for scenes under sun glint. Some issues regarding across-track dependence are found for the cloud fractions as well as for the cloud heights.
Han Ding, Haoran Li, and Liping Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6181–6200, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6181-2022, 2022
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In this study, a framework for processing the Doppler spectra observations of a multi-mode pulse compression Ka–Ku cloud radar system is presented. We first proposed an approach to identify and remove the clutter signals in the Doppler spectrum. Then, we developed a new algorithm to remove the range sidelobe at the modes implementing the pulse compression technique. The radar observations from different modes were then merged using the shift-then-average method.
Andrew T. Prata, Roy G. Grainger, Isabelle A. Taylor, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, and Caroline A. Poulsen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5985–6010, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5985-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5985-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations are often used to track ash clouds and estimate their height, particle sizes and mass; however, satellite-based techniques are always associated with some uncertainty. We describe advances in a satellite-based technique that is used to estimate ash cloud properties for the June 2019 Raikoke (Russia) eruption. Our results are significant because ash warning centres increasingly require uncertainty information to correctly interpret,
aggregate and utilise the data.
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Short summary
We use the C-band POLDIRAD and the Ka-band MIRA-35 to perform snowfall dual-wavelength polarimetric radar measurements. We develop an ice microphysics retrieval for mass, apparent shape, and median size of the particle size distribution by comparing observations to T-matrix ice spheroid simulations while varying the mass–size relationship. We furthermore show how the polarimetric measurements from POLDIRAD help to narrow down ambiguities between ice particle shape and size.
We use the C-band POLDIRAD and the Ka-band MIRA-35 to perform snowfall dual-wavelength...
