Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective

Schirmacher, Imke; Kollias, Pavlos; Lamer, Katia; Mech, Mario; Pfitzenmaier, Lukas; Wendisch, Manfred; Crewell, Susanne

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023

Articles | Volume 16, issue 17

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Articles | Volume 16, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023

Special issue:

HALO-(AC)³ – an airborne campaign to study air...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023

Articles | Volume 16, issue 17

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Research article

11 Sep 2023

Research article |

| 11 Sep 2023

Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective

Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell

Imke Schirmacher

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

imke.schirmacher@uni-koeln.de

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4438-3077

Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Pavlos Kollias

Department of Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook, NY, USA

School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

Katia Lamer

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8328-5704

Department of Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook, NY, USA

Mario Mech

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6229-9616

Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Lukas Pfitzenmaier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6396-5518

Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Manfred Wendisch

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4652-5561

Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

Susanne Crewell

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1251-5805

Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

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BibTeX: 59
EndNote: 49

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Total article views: 1,483 (including HTML, PDF, and XML)

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PDF: 163
XML: 39
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BibTeX: 49
EndNote: 39

Views and downloads (calculated since 11 Sep 2023)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Sep 2023	169	37	11	217
Oct 2023	70	16	1	87
Nov 2023	16	6	0	22
Dec 2023	59	6	1	66
Jan 2024	28	4	0	32
Feb 2024	33	5	0	38
Mar 2024	28	14	2	44
Apr 2024	83	6	5	94
May 2024	32	5	2	39
Jun 2024	87	12	3	102
Jul 2024	409	7	8	424
Aug 2024	49	5	2	56
Sep 2024	22	4	0	26
Oct 2024	35	9	1	45
Nov 2024	19	5	1	25
Dec 2024	23	7	0	30
Jan 2025	31	6	0	37
Feb 2025	31	8	0	39
Mar 2025	57	1	2	60

Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 11 Sep 2023)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Sep 2023	169	37	11	217
Oct 2023	70	16	1	87
Nov 2023	16	6	0	22
Dec 2023	59	6	1	66
Jan 2024	28	4	0	32
Feb 2024	33	5	0	38
Mar 2024	28	14	2	44
Apr 2024	83	6	5	94
May 2024	32	5	2	39
Jun 2024	87	12	3	102
Jul 2024	409	7	8	424
Aug 2024	49	5	2	56
Sep 2024	22	4	0	26
Oct 2024	35	9	1	45
Nov 2024	19	5	1	25
Dec 2024	23	7	0	30
Jan 2025	31	6	0	37
Feb 2025	31	8	0	39
Mar 2025	57	1	2	60

Total article views: 439 (including HTML, PDF, and XML)

HTML	PDF	XML	Total	BibTeX	EndNote
301	118	20	439	10	10

HTML: 301
PDF: 118
XML: 20
Total: 439
BibTeX: 10
EndNote: 10

Views and downloads (calculated since 04 Apr 2023)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Sep 2023	169	37	11	217
Oct 2023	70	16	1	87
Nov 2023	16	6	0	22
Dec 2023	59	6	1	66
Jan 2024	28	4	0	32
Feb 2024	33	5	0	38
Mar 2024	28	14	2	44
Apr 2024	83	6	5	94
May 2024	32	5	2	39
Jun 2024	87	12	3	102
Jul 2024	409	7	8	424
Aug 2024	49	5	2	56
Sep 2024	22	4	0	26
Oct 2024	35	9	1	45
Nov 2024	19	5	1	25
Dec 2024	23	7	0	30
Jan 2025	31	6	0	37
Feb 2025	31	8	0	39
Mar 2025	57	1	2	60

Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 04 Apr 2023)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Sep 2023	169	37	11	217
Oct 2023	70	16	1	87
Nov 2023	16	6	0	22
Dec 2023	59	6	1	66
Jan 2024	28	4	0	32
Feb 2024	33	5	0	38
Mar 2024	28	14	2	44
Apr 2024	83	6	5	94
May 2024	32	5	2	39
Jun 2024	87	12	3	102
Jul 2024	409	7	8	424
Aug 2024	49	5	2	56
Sep 2024	22	4	0	26
Oct 2024	35	9	1	45
Nov 2024	19	5	1	25
Dec 2024	23	7	0	30
Jan 2025	31	6	0	37
Feb 2025	31	8	0	39
Mar 2025	57	1	2	60

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Total article views: 439 (including HTML, PDF, and XML) Thereof 433 with geography defined and 6 with unknown origin.

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United States of America	1	516	26
China	2	442	22
Germany	3	413	21
France	4	44	2
India	5	42	2

Country	#	Views	%
China	1	409	27
United States of America	2	376	25
Germany	3	289	19
undefined	4	40	2
India	5	39	2

Country	#	Views	%
United States of America	1	140	31
Germany	2	124	28
China	3	33	7
France	4	21	4
United Kingdom	5	17	3


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516


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409


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140

Cited

Show all Final revised paper only Preprint only

8 citations as recorded by crossref.

Orbital-Radar v1.0.0: a tool to transform suborbital radar observations to synthetic EarthCARE cloud radar data L. Pfitzenmaier et al. 10.5194/gmd-18-101-2025
Air mass history linked to the development of Arctic mixed-phase clouds R. Murray-Watson & E. Gryspeerdt 10.5194/acp-24-11115-2024
Clouds and precipitation in the initial phase of marine cold-air outbreaks as observed by airborne remote sensing I. Schirmacher et al. 10.5194/acp-24-12823-2024
Thermodynamic and cloud evolution in a cold-air outbreak during HALO-(AC)3: quasi-Lagrangian observations compared to the ERA5 and CARRA reanalyses B. Kirbus et al. 10.5194/acp-24-3883-2024
Overview: quasi-Lagrangian observations of Arctic air mass transformations – introduction and initial results of the HALO–(𝒜 𝒞)3 aircraft campaign M. Wendisch et al. 10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024
Contrasting extremely warm and long-lasting cold air anomalies in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic during the HALO-(𝒜 𝒞)3 campaign A. Walbröl et al. 10.5194/acp-24-8007-2024
How does riming influence the observed spatial variability of ice water in mixed-phase clouds? N. Maherndl et al. 10.5194/acp-24-13935-2024
Evaluation of biases in mid-to-high-latitude surface snowfall and cloud phase in ERA5 and CMIP6 using satellite observations F. Hellmuth et al. 10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025

8 citations as recorded by crossref.

Orbital-Radar v1.0.0: a tool to transform suborbital radar observations to synthetic EarthCARE cloud radar data L. Pfitzenmaier et al. 10.5194/gmd-18-101-2025
Air mass history linked to the development of Arctic mixed-phase clouds R. Murray-Watson & E. Gryspeerdt 10.5194/acp-24-11115-2024
Clouds and precipitation in the initial phase of marine cold-air outbreaks as observed by airborne remote sensing I. Schirmacher et al. 10.5194/acp-24-12823-2024
Thermodynamic and cloud evolution in a cold-air outbreak during HALO-(AC)3: quasi-Lagrangian observations compared to the ERA5 and CARRA reanalyses B. Kirbus et al. 10.5194/acp-24-3883-2024
Overview: quasi-Lagrangian observations of Arctic air mass transformations – introduction and initial results of the HALO–(𝒜 𝒞)3 aircraft campaign M. Wendisch et al. 10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024
Contrasting extremely warm and long-lasting cold air anomalies in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic during the HALO-(𝒜 𝒞)3 campaign A. Walbröl et al. 10.5194/acp-24-8007-2024
How does riming influence the observed spatial variability of ice water in mixed-phase clouds? N. Maherndl et al. 10.5194/acp-24-13935-2024
Evaluation of biases in mid-to-high-latitude surface snowfall and cloud phase in ERA5 and CMIP6 using satellite observations F. Hellmuth et al. 10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025

Latest update: 29 Mar 2025

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Short summary

CloudSat’s relatively coarse spatial resolution, low sensitivity, and blind zone limit its assessment of Arctic low-level clouds, which affect the surface energy balance. We compare cloud fractions from CloudSat and finely resolved airborne radar observations to determine CloudSat’s limitations. Cloudsat overestimates cloud fractions above its blind zone, especially during cold-air outbreaks over open water, and misses a cloud fraction of 32 % and half of the precipitation inside its blind zone.

CloudSat’s relatively coarse spatial resolution, low sensitivity, and blind zone limit its...

Special issue

HALO-(AC)³ – an airborne campaign to study air...