Articles | Volume 18, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2639-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2639-2025
Research article
 | 
23 Jun 2025
Research article |  | 23 Jun 2025

A method to retrieve mixed-phase cloud vertical structure from airborne lidar

Ewan Crosbie, Johnathan W. Hair, Amin R. Nehrir, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris Hostetler, Taylor Shingler, David Harper, Marta Fenn, James Collins, Rory Barton-Grimley, Brian Collister, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Simon Kirschler, and Armin Sorooshian

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Cited articles

Abel, S. J., Boutle, I. A., Waite, K., Fox, S., Brown, P. R. A., Cotton, R., Lloyd, G., Choularton, T. W., and Bower, K. N.: The role of precipitation in controlling the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus clouds in a northern hemisphere cold-air outbreak, J. Atmos. Sci., 74, 2293–2314, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-16-0362.1, 2017. 
Barton-Grimley, R. A., Nehrir, A. R., Kooi, S. A., Collins, J. E., Harper, D. B., Notari, A., Lee, J., DiGangi, J. P., Choi, Y., and Davis, K. J.: Evaluation of the High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) methane retrievals during the summer 2019 ACT-America campaign, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4623–4650, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4623-2022, 2022. 
Bodas-Salcedo, A., Mulcahy, J. P., Andrews, T., Williams, K. D., Ringer, M. A., Field, P. R., and Elsaesser, G. S.: Strong Dependence of Atmospheric Feedbacks on MixedPhase Microphysics and Aerosol-Cloud Interactions in HadGEM3, J. Adv. Model. Earth Sy., 11, 1735–1758, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001688, 2019. 
Burton, S., Hostetler, C., Cook, A., Hair, J., Seaman, S., Scola, S., Harper, D., Smith, J., Fenn, M., Ferrare, R., Saide, P. E., Chemyakin, E. V., and Müller, D.: Calibration of a high spectral resolution lidar using a Michelson interferometer, with data examples from ORACLES, Appl. Optics, 57, 6061, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.57.006061, 2018. 
Burton, S. P., Ferrare, R. A., Hostetler, C. A., Hair, J. W., Rogers, R. R., Obland, M. D., Butler, C. F., Cook, A. L., Harper, D. B., and Froyd, K. D.: Aerosol classification using airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar measurements – methodology and examples, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 73–98, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-73-2012, 2012. 
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Short summary
A method was developed to extract information from airborne lidar observations about the distribution of ice and liquid water within clouds. The method specifically targets signatures of horizontal and vertical gradients in ice and water that appear in the polarization of the lidar signals. The method was tested against direct measurements of the cloud properties collected by a second aircraft.
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