Articles | Volume 15, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4225-2022
© 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-15-4225-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Jul 2022
Research article |
| 21 Jul 2022
| 21 Jul 2022
Locations for the best lidar view of mid-level and high clouds
Matthias Tesche
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University, Stephanstraße 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Vincent Noel
Laboratoire d'Aérologie, CNRS/UPS, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, Toulouse, France
Related authors
Peggy Achtert, Torsten Seelig, Gabriella Wallentin, Luisa Ickes, Matthew D. Shupe, Corinna Hoose, and Matthias Tesche
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3529, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3529, 2025
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We quantify the occurrence of single- and multi-layer clouds in the Arctic based on combining soundings with cloud-radar observations. We also assess the rate of ice-crystal seeding in multi-layer cloud systems as this is an important initiator of glaciation in super-cooled liquid cloud layers. We find an abundance of multi-layer clouds in the Arctic with seeding in about half to two thirds of cases in which the gap between upper and lower layers ranges between 100 and 1000 m.
Gabriella Wallentin, Annika Oertel, Luisa Ickes, Peggy Achtert, Matthias Tesche, and Corinna Hoose
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Multilayer clouds are common in the Arctic but remain underrepresented. We use an atmospheric model to simulate multilayer cloud cases from the Arctic expedition MOSAiC 2019/2020. We find that it is complex to accurately model these cloud layers due to the lack of correct temperature profiles. The model also struggles to capture the observed cloud phase and the relative concentration of cloud droplets and cloud ice. We constrain our model to measured aerosols to mitigate this issue.
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We present a global data set of POLIPHON dust conversion factors at 532 nm obtained using Aerosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) observations at 137 sites for INP and 123 sites for CCN calculations. We also conduct a comparison of dust CCN concentration profiles derived using both POLIPHON and the independent OMCAM (Optical Modelling of the CALIPSO Aerosol Microphysics) retrieval.
Goutam Choudhury, Karoline Block, Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Johannes Quaas, Tom Goren, and Matthias Tesche
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Aerosol particles in the atmosphere increase cloud reflectivity, thereby cooling the Earth. Accurate global measurements of these particles are crucial for estimating this cooling effect. This study compares and harmonizes two newly developed global aerosol datasets, offering insights for their future use and refinement. We identify pristine oceans as a significant source of uncertainty in the datasets and, therefore, in quantifying the role of aerosols in Earth's climate.
Sohee Joo, Juseon Shin, Matthias Tesche, Naghmeh Dehkhoda, Taegyeong Kim, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1023–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1023-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1023-2025, 2025
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In our study, we investigated why, in northeast Asia, visibility has not improved even though air pollution levels have decreased. By examining trends in Seoul and Ulsan, we found that the particles in the air are getting smaller, which scatters light more effectively and reduces how far we can see. Our findings suggest that changes in particle properties adversely affected public perception of air quality improvement even though the PM2.5 mass concentration is continuously decreasing.
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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.
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We introduce the multi-section method, a novel approach for stable extinction coefficient retrievals in horizontally scanning aerosol lidar measurements, in this study. Our method effectively removes signal–noise-induced irregular peaks and derives a reference extinction coefficient, αref, from multiple scans, resulting in a strong correlation (>0.74) with PM2.5 mass concentrations. Case studies demonstrate its utility in retrieving spatio-temporal aerosol distributions and PM2.5 concentrations.
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Aerosols in the atmosphere that can form liquid cloud droplets are called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Accurate measurements of CCN, especially CCN of anthropogenic origin, are necessary to quantify the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the present-day as well as future climate. In this paper, we describe a novel global 3D CCN data set calculated from satellite measurements. We also discuss the potential applications of the data in the context of aerosol–cloud interactions.
Peter Bräuer and Matthias Tesche
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7557–7572, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7557-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7557-2022, 2022
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7143–7161, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7143-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7143-2022, 2022
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Lidars provide height-resolved type-specific aerosol properties and are key in studying vertically collocated aerosols and clouds. In this study, we compare the aerosol number concentrations derived from spaceborne lidar with the in situ flight measurements. Our results show a reasonable agreement between both datasets. Such an agreement has not been achieved yet. It shows the potential of spaceborne lidar in studying aerosol–cloud interactions, which is needed to improve our climate forecasts.
Juseon Shin, Juhyeon Sim, Naghmeh Dehkhoda, Sohee Joo, Taekyung Kim, Gahyung Kim, Detlef Müller, Matthias Tesche, Sungkyun Shin, Dongho Shin, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-219, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
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We analyzed long-term AERONET sun/sky radiometer for 6 continentals to verify the trend of aerosol physical properties depending on sources (dust or pollution) and size (fine or coarse mode). We identified the trend of classified aerosol optical depth (AOD) and size change over 9 years. Especially, we find out aerosol properties causing AOD variations are different from regions and fine aerosol particle in most regions has become smaller using MK-test for trend analysis.
Goutam Choudhury and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 639–654, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-639-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-639-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere. A fraction of these particles can form clouds and are called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Measurements of such aerosol particles are necessary to study the aerosol–cloud interactions and reduce the uncertainty in our future climate predictions. We present a novel methodology to estimate global 3D CCN concentrations from the CALIPSO satellite measurements. The final data set will be used to study the aerosol–cloud interactions.
Maria Kezoudi, Matthias Tesche, Helen Smith, Alexandra Tsekeri, Holger Baars, Maximilian Dollner, Víctor Estellés, Johannes Bühl, Bernadett Weinzierl, Zbigniew Ulanowski, Detlef Müller, and Vassilis Amiridis
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This study uses 17 years (2001–2017) of observed rain rate, aerosol optical depth (AOD), meteorological reanalysis fields and outgoing long-wave radiation to investigate high precipitation events at the foothills of the Himalayas. Composite analysis of all data sets for high precipitation events (daily rainfall > 95th percentile) indicates clear and robust associations between high precipitation events, high aerosol loading and high moist static energy values.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
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Short summary
Short summary
Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Peggy Achtert, Torsten Seelig, Gabriella Wallentin, Luisa Ickes, Matthew D. Shupe, Corinna Hoose, and Matthias Tesche
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3529, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3529, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We quantify the occurrence of single- and multi-layer clouds in the Arctic based on combining soundings with cloud-radar observations. We also assess the rate of ice-crystal seeding in multi-layer cloud systems as this is an important initiator of glaciation in super-cooled liquid cloud layers. We find an abundance of multi-layer clouds in the Arctic with seeding in about half to two thirds of cases in which the gap between upper and lower layers ranges between 100 and 1000 m.
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Short summary
Short summary
Multilayer clouds are common in the Arctic but remain underrepresented. We use an atmospheric model to simulate multilayer cloud cases from the Arctic expedition MOSAiC 2019/2020. We find that it is complex to accurately model these cloud layers due to the lack of correct temperature profiles. The model also struggles to capture the observed cloud phase and the relative concentration of cloud droplets and cloud ice. We constrain our model to measured aerosols to mitigate this issue.
Yun He, Goutam Choudhury, Matthias Tesche, Albert Ansmann, Fan Yi, Detlef Müller, and Zhenping Yin
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2666, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2666, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We present a global data set of POLIPHON dust conversion factors at 532 nm obtained using Aerosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) observations at 137 sites for INP and 123 sites for CCN calculations. We also conduct a comparison of dust CCN concentration profiles derived using both POLIPHON and the independent OMCAM (Optical Modelling of the CALIPSO Aerosol Microphysics) retrieval.
Goutam Choudhury, Karoline Block, Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Johannes Quaas, Tom Goren, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3841–3856, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3841-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3841-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosol particles in the atmosphere increase cloud reflectivity, thereby cooling the Earth. Accurate global measurements of these particles are crucial for estimating this cooling effect. This study compares and harmonizes two newly developed global aerosol datasets, offering insights for their future use and refinement. We identify pristine oceans as a significant source of uncertainty in the datasets and, therefore, in quantifying the role of aerosols in Earth's climate.
Sohee Joo, Juseon Shin, Matthias Tesche, Naghmeh Dehkhoda, Taegyeong Kim, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1023–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1023-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1023-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In our study, we investigated why, in northeast Asia, visibility has not improved even though air pollution levels have decreased. By examining trends in Seoul and Ulsan, we found that the particles in the air are getting smaller, which scatters light more effectively and reduces how far we can see. Our findings suggest that changes in particle properties adversely affected public perception of air quality improvement even though the PM2.5 mass concentration is continuously decreasing.
Mathilde Leroux and Vincent Noel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6433–6454, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6433-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6433-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigates the long-term changes in the polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) season from 1980 to 2021 above Antarctica. We analyzed CALIOP observations from 2006 to 2020 to build a statistical temperature-based model. We applied our model to gridded reanalysis temperatures, leading to an integrated view of PSC occurrence that is free from sampling issues, allowing us to document the past evolution of the PSC season.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Juseon Shin, Gahyeong Kim, Dukhyeon Kim, Matthias Tesche, Gahyeon Park, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 397–406, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-397-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce the multi-section method, a novel approach for stable extinction coefficient retrievals in horizontally scanning aerosol lidar measurements, in this study. Our method effectively removes signal–noise-induced irregular peaks and derives a reference extinction coefficient, αref, from multiple scans, resulting in a strong correlation (>0.74) with PM2.5 mass concentrations. Case studies demonstrate its utility in retrieving spatio-temporal aerosol distributions and PM2.5 concentrations.
Goutam Choudhury and Matthias Tesche
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3747–3760, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3747-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3747-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols in the atmosphere that can form liquid cloud droplets are called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Accurate measurements of CCN, especially CCN of anthropogenic origin, are necessary to quantify the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the present-day as well as future climate. In this paper, we describe a novel global 3D CCN data set calculated from satellite measurements. We also discuss the potential applications of the data in the context of aerosol–cloud interactions.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Peter Bräuer and Matthias Tesche
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7557–7572, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7557-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7557-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a tool for (i) finding temporally and spatially resolved intersections between two- or three-dimensional geographical tracks (trajectories) and (ii) extracting of data in the vicinity of intersections to achieve the optimal combination of various data sets.
Goutam Choudhury, Albert Ansmann, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7143–7161, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7143-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7143-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Lidars provide height-resolved type-specific aerosol properties and are key in studying vertically collocated aerosols and clouds. In this study, we compare the aerosol number concentrations derived from spaceborne lidar with the in situ flight measurements. Our results show a reasonable agreement between both datasets. Such an agreement has not been achieved yet. It shows the potential of spaceborne lidar in studying aerosol–cloud interactions, which is needed to improve our climate forecasts.
Juseon Shin, Juhyeon Sim, Naghmeh Dehkhoda, Sohee Joo, Taekyung Kim, Gahyung Kim, Detlef Müller, Matthias Tesche, Sungkyun Shin, Dongho Shin, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-219, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
We analyzed long-term AERONET sun/sky radiometer for 6 continentals to verify the trend of aerosol physical properties depending on sources (dust or pollution) and size (fine or coarse mode). We identified the trend of classified aerosol optical depth (AOD) and size change over 9 years. Especially, we find out aerosol properties causing AOD variations are different from regions and fine aerosol particle in most regions has become smaller using MK-test for trend analysis.
Artem G. Feofilov, Hélène Chepfer, Vincent Noël, Rodrigo Guzman, Cyprien Gindre, Po-Lun Ma, and Marjolaine Chiriaco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1055–1074, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1055-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1055-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Space-borne lidars have been providing invaluable information of atmospheric optical properties since 2006, and new lidar missions are on the way to ensure continuous observations. In this work, we compare the clouds estimated from space-borne ALADIN and CALIOP lidar observations. The analysis of collocated data shows that the agreement between the retrieved clouds is good up to 3 km height. Above that, ALADIN detects 40 % less clouds than CALIOP, except for polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs).
Goutam Choudhury and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 639–654, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-639-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-639-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere. A fraction of these particles can form clouds and are called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Measurements of such aerosol particles are necessary to study the aerosol–cloud interactions and reduce the uncertainty in our future climate predictions. We present a novel methodology to estimate global 3D CCN concentrations from the CALIPSO satellite measurements. The final data set will be used to study the aerosol–cloud interactions.
Maria Kezoudi, Matthias Tesche, Helen Smith, Alexandra Tsekeri, Holger Baars, Maximilian Dollner, Víctor Estellés, Johannes Bühl, Bernadett Weinzierl, Zbigniew Ulanowski, Detlef Müller, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6781–6797, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6781-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6781-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Mineral dust concentrations in the diameter range from 0.4 to 14.0 μm were measured with the balloon-borne UCASS optical particle counter. Launches were coordinated with ground-based remote-sensing and airborne in situ measurements during a Saharan dust outbreak over Cyprus. Particle number concentrations reached 50 cm−3 for the diameter range 0.8–13.9 μm. Comparisons with aircraft data show reasonable agreement in magnitude and shape of the particle size distribution.
Matthias Tesche, Peggy Achtert, and Michael C. Pitts
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 505–516, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-505-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-505-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We combine spaceborne lidar observations of clouds in the troposphere and stratosphere to assess the outcome of ground-based polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) observations that are often performed at the mercy of tropospheric clouds. We find that the outcome of ground-based lidar measurements of PSCs depends on the location of the measurement. We also provide recommendations regarding the most suitable sites in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Goutam Choudhury, Bhishma Tyagi, Naresh Krishna Vissa, Jyotsna Singh, Chandan Sarangi, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15389–15399, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15389-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15389-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study uses 17 years (2001–2017) of observed rain rate, aerosol optical depth (AOD), meteorological reanalysis fields and outgoing long-wave radiation to investigate high precipitation events at the foothills of the Himalayas. Composite analysis of all data sets for high precipitation events (daily rainfall > 95th percentile) indicates clear and robust associations between high precipitation events, high aerosol loading and high moist static energy values.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Damien Héron, Stephanie Evan, Joris Pianezze, Thibaut Dauhut, Jerome Brioude, Karen Rosenlof, Vincent Noel, Soline Bielli, Christelle Barthe, and Jean-Pierre Cammas
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-870, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-870, 2020
Publication in ACP not foreseen
Short summary
Short summary
Upward transport within tropical cyclones of water vapor from the low troposphere into the colder upper troposphere/lower stratosphere can result in the moistening of this region. Balloon observations and model simulations of tropical cyclone Enawo in the less-observed Southwest Indian Ocean (the third most tropical cyclone active region on Earth) are used to show how convective overshoots within Enawo penetrate the tropopause directly, injecting water/ice into the stratosphere.
Cited articles
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Short summary
Mid-level and high clouds can be considered natural laboratories for studying cloud glaciation in the atmosphere. While they can be conveniently observed from ground with lidar, such measurements require a clear line of sight between the instrument and the target cloud. Here, observations of clouds with two spaceborne lidars are used to assess where ground-based lidar measurements of mid- and upper-level clouds are least affected by the light-attenuating effect of low-level clouds.
Mid-level and high clouds can be considered natural laboratories for studying cloud glaciation...
