Articles | Volume 15, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-775-2022
© 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-15-775-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Coincident in situ and triple-frequency radar airborne observations in the Arctic
Cuong M. Nguyen
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Flight Research Laboratory, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa,
K1A 0R6, Canada
Mengistu Wolde
Flight Research Laboratory, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa,
K1A 0R6, Canada
Alessandro Battaglia
DIATI, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
Earth Observation Science, Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leicester,
Leicester, United Kingdom
Leonid Nichman
Flight Research Laboratory, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa,
K1A 0R6, Canada
Natalia Bliankinshtein
Flight Research Laboratory, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa,
K1A 0R6, Canada
Samuel Haimov
Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
Kenny Bala
Flight Research Laboratory, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa,
K1A 0R6, Canada
Dirk Schuettemeyer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
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Zhipeng Qu, Alexei Korolev, Jason A. Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Mélissa Cholette, Cuong Nguyen, and Mengistu Wolde
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-649, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-649, 2025
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This study examines the impact of incorporating secondary ice production (SIP) parameterizations into high-resolution numerical weather prediction simulations for mid-latitude continental winter conditions. Aircraft in situ and remote sensing observations are used to evaluate the simulations. Results show that including SIP improves the representation of cloud and freezing rain properties, with its impact varying based on cloud regime, such as convective or stratiform.
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The phenomenon of high ice water content (HIWC) occurs in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) when a large number of small ice particles with typical sizes of a few hundred micrometers is found at high altitudes. It was found that secondary ice production in the vicinity of the melting layer plays a key role in the formation and maintenance of HIWC. This study presents a conceptual model of the formation of HIWC in tropical MCSs based on in situ observations and numerical simulation.
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A remote sensing method to retrieve sizes of particles in ice clouds and precipitation from radar measurements at two wavelengths is described. This method is based on relating the particle size information to the ratio of radar signals at these two wavelengths. It is demonstrated that this ratio is informative about different characteristic particle sizes. Knowing atmospheric ice particle sizes is important for many applications such as precipitation estimation and climate modeling.
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Secondary ice production (SIP) is an important physical phenomenon that results in an increase in the cloud ice particle concentration and can have a significant impact on the evolution of clouds. Here, idealized simulations of a tropical convective system were conducted. Agreement between the simulations and observations highlights the impacts of SIP on the maintenance of tropical convection in nature and the importance of including the modelling of SIP in numerical weather prediction models.
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Numerous small ice crystals in tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. Previous numerical simulations failed to reproduce this phenomenon and hypothesized that key microphysical processes are still lacking in current models to realistically simulate the phenomenon. This study uses numerical experiments to confirm the dominant role of secondary ice production in the formation of these large numbers of small ice crystals.
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A method for estimating microphysical properties of ice clouds based on radar measurements is presented. The algorithm exploits the information provided by differences in the radar response at different frequency bands in relation to changes in the snow morphology. The inversion scheme is based on a statistical relation between the radar simulations and the properties of snow calculated from in-cloud sampling.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6919–6944, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, 2021
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Numerous small ice crystals in the tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. This study evaluated the numerical models against the airborne observations and investigated the potential cloud processes that could lead to the production of these large numbers of small ice crystals. It is found that key microphysical processes are still lacking or misrepresented in current numerical models to realistically simulate the phenomenon.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4183–4205, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4183-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4183-2025, 2025
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Current infrared satellite sounders offer high spectral but low spatial resolution, limiting their ability to quantify atmospheric ammonia (NH3) at small scales. Through simulations and analysis of real data, we show that NH3 can be measured effectively from spectra with reduced resolution, either in a contiguous spectral range or in select well-chosen bands. This approach opens possibilities for the development of smaller dedicated instruments for observing NH3 at high spatial resolution.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Cirrus clouds play a vital role in regulating the energy balance of our planet. Unfortunately, these are still not completely understood representing the major source of error in the predictive performance of climate models. We show that a good consinstency between in situ measurements of cirrus cloud microphysics and remote sensing observations from ground base is achievable by simulating the emitted spectrum with the current parameterization of cirrus optical properties.
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This study examines the impact of incorporating secondary ice production (SIP) parameterizations into high-resolution numerical weather prediction simulations for mid-latitude continental winter conditions. Aircraft in situ and remote sensing observations are used to evaluate the simulations. Results show that including SIP improves the representation of cloud and freezing rain properties, with its impact varying based on cloud regime, such as convective or stratiform.
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Alexei Korolev, Zhipeng Qu, Jason Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Mélissa Cholette, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Greg M. McFarquhar, Paul Lawson, and Ann M. Fridlind
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The phenomenon of high ice water content (HIWC) occurs in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) when a large number of small ice particles with typical sizes of a few hundred micrometers is found at high altitudes. It was found that secondary ice production in the vicinity of the melting layer plays a key role in the formation and maintenance of HIWC. This study presents a conceptual model of the formation of HIWC in tropical MCSs based on in situ observations and numerical simulation.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2219–2233, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2219-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2219-2024, 2024
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We conducted a radiance closure experiment using a unique combination of two hyperspectral radiometers, one operating in the microwave and the other in the infrared. By comparing the measurements of the two hyperspectrometers to synthetic radiance simulated from collocated atmospheric profiles, we affirmed the proper performance of the two instruments and quantified their radiometric uncertainty for atmospheric sounding applications.
Shelby Fuller, Samuel A. Marlow, Samuel Haimov, Matthew Burkhart, Kevin Shaffer, Austin Morgan, and Jefferson R. Snider
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6123–6142, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6123-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6123-2023, 2023
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Snowfall rate and radar reflectivity measurements were analyzed. We confirmed that the relationship between snowfall rate and reflectivity is dependent on snow particle type. It is likely that the measured snowfall was produced by solid (ice) particles colliding with liquid cloud droplets, forming rimed snow particles. This analysis is expected to improve snowfall rate estimation based on measurements made using W-band radars.
Lena Katharina Jänicke, Rene Preusker, Marco Celesti, Marin Tudoroiu, Jürgen Fischer, Dirk Schüttemeyer, and Matthias Drusch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3101–3121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3101-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3101-2023, 2023
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To compare two top-of-atmosphere radiances measured by instruments with different spectral characteristics, a transfer function has been developed. It is applied to a tandem data set of Sentinel-3A and B, for which OLCI-B mimicked the ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer FLEX. We found that OLCI-A measured radiances about 2 % brighter than OLCI-FLEX. Only at larger wavelengths were OLCI-A measurements about 5 % darker. The method is thus successful, being sensitive to calibration and processing issues.
Kezia Lange, Andreas Richter, Anja Schönhardt, Andreas C. Meier, Tim Bösch, André Seyler, Kai Krause, Lisa K. Behrens, Folkard Wittrock, Alexis Merlaud, Frederik Tack, Caroline Fayt, Martina M. Friedrich, Ermioni Dimitropoulou, Michel Van Roozendael, Vinod Kumar, Sebastian Donner, Steffen Dörner, Bianca Lauster, Maria Razi, Christian Borger, Katharina Uhlmannsiek, Thomas Wagner, Thomas Ruhtz, Henk Eskes, Birger Bohn, Daniel Santana Diaz, Nader Abuhassan, Dirk Schüttemeyer, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1357–1389, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1357-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1357-2023, 2023
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We present airborne imaging DOAS and ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements conducted during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign in the Rhine-Ruhr region. The measurements are used to validate spaceborne NO2 data products from the Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Auxiliary data of the TROPOMI NO2 retrieval, such as spatially higher resolved a priori NO2 vertical profiles, surface reflectivity, and cloud treatment are investigated to evaluate their impact.
Sergey Y. Matrosov, Alexei Korolev, Mengistu Wolde, and Cuong Nguyen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6373–6386, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6373-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6373-2022, 2022
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A remote sensing method to retrieve sizes of particles in ice clouds and precipitation from radar measurements at two wavelengths is described. This method is based on relating the particle size information to the ratio of radar signals at these two wavelengths. It is demonstrated that this ratio is informative about different characteristic particle sizes. Knowing atmospheric ice particle sizes is important for many applications such as precipitation estimation and climate modeling.
Alexei Korolev, Paul J. DeMott, Ivan Heckman, Mengistu Wolde, Earle Williams, David J. Smalley, and Michael F. Donovan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13103–13113, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13103-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13103-2022, 2022
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The present study provides the first explicit in situ observation of secondary ice production at temperatures as low as −27 °C, which is well outside the range of the Hallett–Mossop process (−3 to −8 °C). This observation expands our knowledge of the temperature range of initiation of secondary ice in clouds. The obtained results are intended to stimulate laboratory and theoretical studies to develop physically based parameterizations for weather prediction and climate models.
Katherine L. Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Michael J. Wheeler, Jeremy J. B. Wentzell, Amy Leithead, Peter Brickell, Richard L. Mittermeier, Zachary Oldham, Cristian M. Mihele, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, Andrea Darlington, Mengistu Wolde, Daniel Thompson, Jack Chen, Debora Griffin, Ellen Eckert, Jenna C. Ditto, Megan He, and Drew R. Gentner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12493–12523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, 2022
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In this study, airborne measurements provided the most detailed characterization, to date, of boreal forest wildfire emissions. Measurements showed a large diversity of air pollutants expanding the volatility range typically reported. A large portion of organic species was unidentified, likely comprised of complex organic compounds. Aircraft-derived emissions improve wildfire chemical speciation and can support reliable model predictions of pollution from boreal forest wildfires.
Zhipeng Qu, Alexei Korolev, Jason A. Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Yongjie Huang, Greg M. McFarquhar, Hugh Morrison, Mengistu Wolde, and Cuong Nguyen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12287–12310, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12287-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12287-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Secondary ice production (SIP) is an important physical phenomenon that results in an increase in the cloud ice particle concentration and can have a significant impact on the evolution of clouds. Here, idealized simulations of a tropical convective system were conducted. Agreement between the simulations and observations highlights the impacts of SIP on the maintenance of tropical convection in nature and the importance of including the modelling of SIP in numerical weather prediction models.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Ming Xue, Hugh Morrison, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, Yachao Hu, Zhipeng Qu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2365–2384, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, 2022
Short summary
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Numerous small ice crystals in tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. Previous numerical simulations failed to reproduce this phenomenon and hypothesized that key microphysical processes are still lacking in current models to realistically simulate the phenomenon. This study uses numerical experiments to confirm the dominant role of secondary ice production in the formation of these large numbers of small ice crystals.
Kamil Mroz, Alessandro Battaglia, Cuong Nguyen, Andrew Heymsfield, Alain Protat, and Mengistu Wolde
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7243–7254, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7243-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7243-2021, 2021
Short summary
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A method for estimating microphysical properties of ice clouds based on radar measurements is presented. The algorithm exploits the information provided by differences in the radar response at different frequency bands in relation to changes in the snow morphology. The inversion scheme is based on a statistical relation between the radar simulations and the properties of snow calculated from in-cloud sampling.
Luca Palchetti, Marco Barucci, Claudio Belotti, Giovanni Bianchini, Bertrand Cluzet, Francesco D'Amato, Samuele Del Bianco, Gianluca Di Natale, Marco Gai, Dina Khordakova, Alessio Montori, Hilke Oetjen, Markus Rettinger, Christian Rolf, Dirk Schuettemeyer, Ralf Sussmann, Silvia Viciani, Hannes Vogelmann, and Frank Gunther Wienhold
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4303–4312, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4303-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4303-2021, 2021
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The FIRMOS far-infrared (IR) prototype, developed for the preparation of the ESA FORUM mission, was deployed for the first time at Mt. Zugspitze at 3000 m altitude to measure the far-IR spectrum of atmospheric emissions. The measurements, including co-located radiometers, lidars, radio soundings, weather, and surface properties, provide a unique dataset to study radiative properties of water vapour, cirrus clouds, and snow emissivity over the IR emissions, including the under-explored far-IR.
Konstantin Baibakov, Samuel LeBlanc, Keyvan Ranjbar, Norman T. O'Neill, Mengistu Wolde, Jens Redemann, Kristina Pistone, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Katherine Hayden, Tak W. Chan, Michael J. Wheeler, Leonid Nichman, Connor Flynn, and Roy Johnson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10671–10687, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10671-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10671-2021, 2021
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We find that the airborne measurements of the vertical extinction due to aerosols (aerosol optical depth, AOD) obtained in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) can significantly exceed ground-based values. This can have an effect on estimating the AOSR radiative impact and is relevant to satellite validation based on ground-based measurements. We also show that the AOD can marginally increase as the plumes are being transported away from the source and the new particles are being formed.
Mariko Oue, Pavlos Kollias, Sergey Y. Matrosov, Alessandro Battaglia, and Alexander V. Ryzhkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4893–4913, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4893-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4893-2021, 2021
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Multi-wavelength radar measurements provide capabilities to identify ice particle types and growth processes in clouds beyond the capabilities of single-frequency radar measurements. This study introduces Doppler velocity and polarimetric radar observables into the multi-wavelength radar reflectivity measurement to improve identification analysis. The analysis clearly discerns snowflake aggregation and riming processes and even early stages of riming.
Katherine Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, Paul Makar, John Liggio, Samar G. Moussa, Ayodeji Akingunola, Robert McLaren, Ralf M. Staebler, Andrea Darlington, Jason O'Brien, Junhua Zhang, Mengistu Wolde, and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8377–8392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8377-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8377-2021, 2021
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We developed a method using aircraft measurements to determine lifetimes with respect to dry deposition for oxidized sulfur and nitrogen compounds over the boreal forest in Alberta, Canada. Atmospheric lifetimes were significantly shorter than derived from chemical transport models with differences related to modelled dry deposition velocities. The shorter lifetimes suggest models need to reassess dry deposition treatment and predictions of sulfur and nitrogen in the atmosphere and ecosystems.
Katia Lamer, Mariko Oue, Alessandro Battaglia, Richard J. Roy, Ken B. Cooper, Ranvir Dhillon, and Pavlos Kollias
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3615–3629, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3615-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3615-2021, 2021
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Observations collected during the 25 February 2020 deployment of the VIPR at the Stony Brook Radar Observatory clearly demonstrate the potential of G-band radars for cloud and precipitation research. The field experiment, which coordinated an X-, Ka-, W- and G-band radar, revealed that the differential reflectivity from Ka–G band pair provides larger signals than the traditional Ka–W pairing underpinning an increased sensitivity to smaller amounts of liquid and ice water mass and sizes.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Xuguang Wang, Hugh Morrison, Alexander Ryzhkov, Yachao Hu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6919–6944, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, 2021
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Numerous small ice crystals in the tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. This study evaluated the numerical models against the airborne observations and investigated the potential cloud processes that could lead to the production of these large numbers of small ice crystals. It is found that key microphysical processes are still lacking or misrepresented in current numerical models to realistically simulate the phenomenon.
Kamil Mróz, Alessandro Battaglia, Stefan Kneifel, Leonie von Terzi, Markus Karrer, and Davide Ori
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 511–529, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-511-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-511-2021, 2021
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The article examines the relationship between the characteristics of rain and the properties of the ice cloud from which the rain originated. Our results confirm the widely accepted assumption that the mass flux through the melting zone is well preserved with an exception of extreme aggregation and riming conditions. Moreover, it is shown that the mean (mass-weighted) size of particles above and below the melting zone is strongly linked, with the former being on average larger.
Cuiqi Zhang, Yue Zhang, Martin J. Wolf, Leonid Nichman, Chuanyang Shen, Timothy B. Onasch, Longfei Chen, and Daniel J. Cziczo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13957–13984, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13957-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13957-2020, 2020
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Black carbon (BC) is considered the second most important global warming agent. However, the role of BC aerosol–cloud–climate interactions in the cirrus formation remains uncertain. Our study of selected BC types and sizes suggests that increases in diameter, compactness, and/or surface oxidation of BC particles lead to more efficient ice nucleation (IN) via pore condensation freezing (PCF) pathways,and that coatings of common secondary organic aerosol (SOA) materials can inhibit ice formation.
Alexis Merlaud, Livio Belegante, Daniel-Eduard Constantin, Mirjam Den Hoed, Andreas Carlos Meier, Marc Allaart, Magdalena Ardelean, Maxim Arseni, Tim Bösch, Hugues Brenot, Andreea Calcan, Emmanuel Dekemper, Sebastian Donner, Steffen Dörner, Mariana Carmelia Balanica Dragomir, Lucian Georgescu, Anca Nemuc, Doina Nicolae, Gaia Pinardi, Andreas Richter, Adrian Rosu, Thomas Ruhtz, Anja Schönhardt, Dirk Schuettemeyer, Reza Shaiganfar, Kerstin Stebel, Frederik Tack, Sorin Nicolae Vâjâiac, Jeni Vasilescu, Jurgen Vanhamel, Thomas Wagner, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5513–5535, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5513-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5513-2020, 2020
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The AROMAT campaigns took place in Romania in 2014 and 2015. They aimed to test airborne observation systems dedicated to air quality studies and to verify the concept of such campaigns in support of the validation of space-borne atmospheric missions. We show that airborne measurements of NO2 can be valuable for the validation of air quality satellites. For H2CO and SO2, the validation should involve ground-based measurement systems at key locations that the AROMAT measurements help identify.
Frédéric Tridon, Alessandro Battaglia, and Stefan Kneifel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5065–5085, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5065-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5065-2020, 2020
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The droplets and ice crystals composing clouds and precipitation interact with microwaves and can therefore be observed by radars, but they can also attenuate the signal they emit. By combining the observations made by two ground-based radars, this study describes an original approach for estimating such attenuation. As a result, the latter can be not only corrected in the radar observations but also exploited for providing an accurate characterization of droplet and ice crystal properties.
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Battaglia, A., Kollias, P., Dhillon, R., Roy, R., Tanelli, S., Lamer, K.,
Grecu, M., Lebsock, M., Watters, D., Mroz, K., Heymsfield, G., Li, L., and
Furukawa, K.: Spaceborne Cloud and Precipitation Radars: Status, Challenges,
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Short summary
An analysis of airborne triple-frequency radar and almost perfectly co-located coincident in situ data from an Arctic storm confirms the main findings of modeling work with radar dual-frequency ratios (DFRs) at different zones of the DFR plane associated with different ice habits. High-resolution CPI images provide accurate identification of rimed particles within the DFR plane. The relationships between the triple-frequency signals and cloud microphysical properties are also presented.
An analysis of airborne triple-frequency radar and almost perfectly co-located coincident in...