Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-3291-2026
© Author(s) 2026. 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-19-3291-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 May 2026
Research article |
| 22 May 2026
| 22 May 2026
Detection of embedded contrails in airborne lidar measurements
Mahshad Soleimanpour
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM), Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Torsten Seelig
Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM), Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Silke Groß
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Matthias Tesche
Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM), Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Related authors
No articles found.
Gabriella Wallentin, Luisa Ickes, Peggy Achtert, Matthias Tesche, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 3069–3089, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3069-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3069-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Multilayer clouds are cloud systems with two or more vertically stacked cloud layers. Using a weather prediction model, we simulate clouds in the Arctic during a month. The model is evaluated against observations collected during the ship campaign MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate). We find that multilayer clouds frequently occur in the region, in fact, they dominate the cloud occurrence. The study highlights the importance of representing these clouds in simulations over the Arctic.
Peggy Achtert, Torsten Seelig, Gabriella Wallentin, Luisa Ickes, Matthew D. Shupe, Corinna Hoose, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 3049–3068, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3049-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3049-2026, 2026
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.
David Mateos, Carlos Toledano, Abel Calle, Roberto Román, Marcos Herreras-Giralda, Ramiro González, Sara Herrero-Anta, Daniel González-Fernández, Celia Herrero-del Barrio, Argyro Nisantzi, Rodanthi E. Mamouri, Silke Groß, Victoria E. Cachorro, Ángel M. de Frutos, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1993–2005, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1993-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1993-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
A field experiment deployed in Cyprus included two sun photometers of Aerosol Robotic Network in two different sites. Mineral dust was predominant during the experiment, with Saharan and Arabian dust showing distinct optical properties, in particular, the Angstrom Exponent in the near-infrarred range and Volume Efficiency factor. Both magnitudes can served as a reliable proxy for mineral dust typing. No significant black carbon presence was detected.
Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, Bjorn Stevens, Martin Wirth, Georgios Dekoutsidis, André Ehrlich, Dimitra Kouklaki, Konstantin Krüger, Sophie Rosenburg, Lea Volkmer, Jonas von Bismark, Lutz Hirsch, Anna E. Luebke, Eleni Marinou, Bernhard Mayer, Montserrat Pinol Sole, Manfred Wendisch, Julia Windmiller, Vassilis Amiridis, Rob Koopman, Takuji Kubota, and Markus Rapp
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-112, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-112, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
In May 2024 the joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) EarthCARE was launched. A similar payload as deployed on the satellite was set up on the German research aircraft HALO, and deployed during an extensive measurement campaign out of three locations to validated the satellite. In this manuscript we present our instrumentation, the measurements, and its potential for the validation of EarthCARE. We also show first results.
Qiang Li and Silke Groß
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 16657–16677, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16657-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16657-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents the cirrus occurrence and optical properties at high- and midlatitudes using the satellite lidar measurements. The results indicate the differences in cirrus occurrence and optical properties across latitudes. Besides seasonality, the cirrus extinction and depolarization show a consistent decrease with increasing latitude. The potential causes are discussed and it turns out that aerosol particles show much larger concentrations at midlatitudes than at high-latitudes.
Yun He, Goutam Choudhury, Matthias Tesche, Albert Ansmann, Fan Yi, Detlef Müller, and Zhenping Yin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 5669–5685, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5669-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5669-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We present a global dataset of POlarization LIdar PHOtometer Networking (POLIPHON) dust conversion factors at 532 nm obtained using Aerosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) observations at 137 sites for ice-nucleating particle (INP) and 123 sites for cloud condensation nucleation (CCN) calculations. We also conduct a comparison of dust CCN concentration profiles derived using both POLIPHON and the independent Optical Modelling of the CALIPSO Aerosol Microphysics (OMCAM) retrieval.
Christian Heske, Florian Ewald, and Silke Groß
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 5177–5198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5177-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5177-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study proposes a new technique to augment polarimetric radar measurements of the national German operational radar network with vertically looking cloud radars. The method is tested in two different case studies by comparison to dedicated scanning radars revealing promising results. Future usage of the method is motivated by analyzing the coverage of the operational radar network finding advantageous locations with good radar coverage.
Gabriella Wallentin, Annika Oertel, Luisa Ickes, Peggy Achtert, Matthias Tesche, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6607–6631, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6607-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6607-2025, 2025
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.
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.
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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3191–3211, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3191-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3191-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosols contribute to the largest uncertainties in climate change predictions. The eastern Mediterranean is a hotspot for aerosols with natural and anthropogenic contributions. We present lidar measurements performed during A-LIFE (Absorbing aerosol layers in a changing climate: aging, lifetime and dynamics) to characterize aerosols and aerosol mixtures. We extend current lidar classification and separation schemes and compare them to classification schemes using different methods.
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.
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 E. 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 M. 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 Schaefer, Vera Schemann, 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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8865–8892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
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 mid-latitude weather. In our article, we describe how to observe air mass transformations during CAOs and WAIs using three research aircraft instrumented with state-of-the-art remote-sensing and in situ measurement devices.
Clémantyne Aubry, Julien Delanoë, Silke Groß, Florian Ewald, Frédéric Tridon, Olivier Jourdan, and Guillaume Mioche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3863–3881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3863-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3863-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Radar–lidar synergy is used to retrieve ice, supercooled water and mixed-phase cloud properties, making the most of the radar sensitivity to ice crystals and the lidar sensitivity to supercooled droplets. A 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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5971–5987, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5971-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5971-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
For 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, air masses 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.
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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.
Matthias Tesche and Vincent Noel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4225–4240, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4225-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4225-2022, 2022
Short summary
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.
Eleni Tetoni, Florian Ewald, Martin Hagen, Gregor Köcher, Tobias Zinner, and Silke Groß
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3969–3999, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3969-2022, 2022
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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.
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Cited articles
Bock, L. and Burkhardt, U.: Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8163–8174, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8163-2019, 2019. a, b
Boucher, O.: Air traffic may increase cirrus cloudiness, Nature, 397, 30–31, https://doi.org/10.1038/16169, 1999. a
Bräuer, P. and Tesche, M.: TrackMatcher – a tool for finding intercepts in tracks of geographical positions, Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7557–7572, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7557-2022, 2022. a
Burkhardt, U. and Kärcher, B.: Global radiative forcing from contrail cirrus, Nat. Clim. Change, 1, 54–58, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1068, 2011. a
Delanoë, J. and Hogan, R. J.: A variational scheme for retrieving ice cloud properties from combined radar, lidar, and infrared radiometer, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009000, 2008. a
Duda, D. P., Minnis, P., Khlopenkov, K., Chee, T. L., and Boeke, R.: Estimation of 2006 Northern Hemisphere contrail coverage using MODIS data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 612–617, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50097, 2013. a
Duda, D. P., Bedka, S. T., Minnis, P., Spangenberg, D., Khlopenkov, K., Chee, T., and Smith Jr., W. L.: Northern Hemisphere contrail properties derived from Terra and Aqua MODIS data for 2006 and 2012, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5313–5330, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5313-2019, 2019. a
Esselborn, M., Wirth, M., Fix, A., Tesche, M., and Ehret, G.: Airborne high spectral resolution lidar for measuring aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients, Appl. Optics, 47, 346–358, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.47.000346, 2008. a
Ewald, F., Groß, S., Wirth, M., Delanoë, J., Fox, S., and Mayer, B.: Why we need radar, lidar, and solar radiance observations to constrain ice cloud microphysics, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5029–5047, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5029-2021, 2021. a
Freudenthaler, V., Homburg, F., and Jäger, H.: Optical parameters of contrails from lidar measurements: Linear depolarization, Geophys. Res. Lett., 23, 3715–3718, https://doi.org/10.1029/96GL03646, 1996. a, b
Freudenthaler, V., Esselborn, M., Wiegner, M., Heese, B., Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., Müller, D., Althausen, D., Wirth, M., Fix, A., Ehret, G., Knippertz, P., Toledano, C., Gasteiger, J., Garhammer, M., and Seefeldner, M.: Depolarization ratio profiling at several wavelengths in pure Saharan dust during SAMUM 2006, Tellus B, 61, 165–179, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2008.00396.x, 2009. a
Gettelman, A. and Chen, C.: The climate impact of aviation aerosols, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 2785–2789, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50520, 2013. a
Groß, S., Wirth, M., Schäfler, A., Fix, A., Kaufmann, S., and Voigt, C.: Potential of airborne lidar measurements for cirrus cloud studies, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2745–2755, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2745-2014, 2014. a
Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Hirahara, S., Horányi, A., Muñoz-Sabater, J., Nicolas, J., Peubey, C., Radu, R., Schepers, D., Simmons, A., Soci, C., Abdalla, S., Abellan, X., Balsamo, G., Bechtold, P., Biavati, G., Bidlot, J., Bonavita, M., De Chiara, G., Dahlgren, P., Dee, D., Diamantakis, M., Dragani, R., Flemming, J., Forbes, R., Fuentes, M., Geer, A., Haimberger, L., Healy, S., Hogan, R. J., Hólm, E., Janisková, M., Keeley, S., Laloyaux, P., Lopez, P., Lupu, C., Radnoti, G., de Rosnay, P., Rozum, I., Vamborg, F., Villaume, S., and Thépaut, J.-N.: The ERA5 global reanalysis, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 146, 1999–2049, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803, 2020. a
Heymsfield, A. J., Krämer, M., Luebke, A., Brown, P., Cziczo, D. J., Franklin, C., Lawson, P., Lohmann, U., McFarquhar, G., Ulanowski, Z., and Van Tricht, K.: Cirrus Clouds, Meteor. Mon., 58, 2.1–2.26, https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-16-0010.1, 2017. a
Jurkat-Witschas, T., Voigt, C., Groß, S., Kaufmann, S., Sauer, D., la Torre Castro, E. D., Krämer, M., Schäfler, A., Afchine, A., Attinger, R., Garcia, I. B., Beer, C. G., Bugliaro, L., Clemen, H.-C., Dekoutsidis, G., Ehrlich, A., Grawe, S., Hahn, V., Hendricks, J., Järvinen, E., Thomas, K., Krüger, K., Ovid, K., Lucke, J., Luebke, A. E., Marsing, A., Mayer, B., Mayer, J., Mertes, S., Moser, M., Müller, H., Nenakhov, V., Pöhlker, M., Pöschl, U., Pörtge, V., Rautenhaus, M., Righi, M., Röttenbacher, J., Rubin-Zuzic, M., Schaefer, J., Schnaiter, M., Schneider, J., Schumann, U., Spelten, N., Stratmann, F., Tomsche, L., Wagner, S., Wang, Z., Weber, A., Wendisch, M., Wernli, H., Wetzel, B., Wirth, M., Zahn, A., Ziereis, H., and Zöger, M.: CIRRUS-HL: Picturing High- and Midlatitude Summer Cirrus and Contrail Cirrus above Europe with Airborne Measurements aboard the Research Aircraft HALO, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 106, E2300–E2327, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0270.1, 2025. a, b, c
Kärcher, B.: Cirrus clouds and their response to anthropogenic activities, Current Climate Change Reports, 3, 45–57, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0060-3, 2017. a
Lee, D. S., Fahey, D. W., Forster, P. M., Newton, P. J., Wit, R. C., Lim, L. L., Owen, B., and Sausen, R.: Aviation and global climate change in the 21st century, Atmos. Environ., 43, 3520–3537, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.04.024, 2009. a
Lee, D. S., Fahey, D. W., Skowron, A., Allen, M. R., Burkhardt, U., Chen, Q., Doherty, S. J., Freeman, S., Forster, P. M., Fuglestvedt, J., Gettelman, A., De León, R. R., Lim, L. L., Lund, M. T., Millar, R. J., Owen, B., Penner, J. E., Pitari, G., Prather, M. J., Sausen, R., and Wilcox, L. J.: The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018, Atmos. Environ., 244, 117834, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834, 2021. a, b
Li, Q. and Groß, S.: Satellite observations of seasonality and long-term trends in cirrus cloud properties over Europe: investigation of possible aviation impacts, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15963–15980, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15963-2022, 2022. a, b
Marjani, S., Tesche, M., Bräuer, P., Sourdeval, O., and Quaas, J.: Satellite observations of the impact of individual aircraft on ice crystal number in thin cirrus clouds, Geophys. Res. Lett., 49, e2021GL096173, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096173, 2022. a, b, c
Marjani, S., Mehrdad, S., and Quaas, J.: Investigating the Development of Persistent Contrails in Ice Supersaturated Regions with Cloudy Backgrounds Using ICON-LEM, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1847, 2025. a
Minnis, P., Schumann, U., Doelling, D. R., Gierens, K. M., and Fahey, D. W.: Global distribution of contrail radiative forcing, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 1853–1856, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL900358, 1999. a
Minnis, P., Bedka, S. T., Duda, D. P., Bedka, K. M., Chee, T., Ayers, J. K., Palikonda, R., Spangenberg, D. A., Khlopenkov, K. V., and Boeke, R.: Linear contrail and contrail cirrus properties determined from satellite data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 3220–3226, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50569, 2013. a
Petzold, A., Khan, N. F., Li, Y., Spichtinger, P., Rohs, S., Crewell, S., Wahner, A., and Krämer, M.: Most long-lived contrails form within cirrus clouds with uncertain climate impact, Nat. Commun., 16, 9695, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65532-2, 2025. a, b
Schumann, U.: On conditions for contrail formation from aircraft exhausts, Meteorol. Z., 5, 4–23, https://doi.org/10.1127/metz/5/1996/4, 1996. a
Schumann, U.: Formation, properties and climatic effects of contrails, C. R. Phys., 6, 549–565, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2005.05.002, 2005. a
Schumann, U.: A contrail cirrus prediction model, Geosci. Model Dev., 5, 543–580, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-543-2012, 2012. a
Schumann, U. and Graf, K.: Aviation-induced cirrus and radiation changes at diurnal timescales, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 2404–2421, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50184, 2013. a, b
Schumann, U. and Heymsfield, A. J.: On the life cycle of individual contrails and contrail cirrus, Meteor. Mon., 3.1–3.24, https://doi.org/10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-16-0005.1, 2017. a
Schumann, U. and Seifert, A.: On the Weather Impact of Contrails: New Insights from Coupled ICON–CoCiP Simulations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 18571–18597, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18571-2025, 2025. a
Schumann, U., Baumann, R., Baumgardner, D., Bedka, S. T., Duda, D. P., Freudenthaler, V., Gayet, J.-F., Heymsfield, A. J., Minnis, P., Quante, M., Raschke, E., Schlager, H., Vázquez-Navarro, M., Voigt, C., and Wang, Z.: Properties of individual contrails: a compilation of observations and some comparisons, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 403–438, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-403-2017, 2017. a
Seelig, T., Wolf, K., Bellouin, N., and Tesche, M.: Quantification of the radiative forcing of contrails embedded in cirrus clouds, Nat. Commun., 16, 10703, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66231-8, 2025. a, b, c
Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., Müller”, D., Althausen, D., Mattis, I., Heese, B., Freudenthaler, V., Wiegner, M., Esselborn, M., Pisani, G., and Knippertz, P.: Vertical profiling of Saharan dust with Raman lidars and airborne HSRL in southern Morocco during SAMUM, Tellus B, 61, 144–164, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2008.00390.x, 2009. a
Tesche, M., Groß, S., Ansmann, A., Müller, D., Althausen, D., Freudenthaler, V., and Esselborn, M.: Profiling of Saharan dust and biomass-burning smoke with multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar at Cape Verde, Tellus B, 63, 649–676, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2011.00548.x, 2011. a
Tesche, M., Achtert, P., Glantz, P., and Noone, K. J.: Aviation effects on already-existing cirrus clouds, Nat. Commun., 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12016, 2016. a, b, c, d
Unterstrasser, S.: Properties of young contrails – a parametrisation based on large-eddy simulations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2059–2082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2059-2016, 2016. a
Unterstrasser, S., Paoli, R., Sölch, I., Kühnlein, C., and Gerz, T.: Dimension of aircraft exhaust plumes at cruise conditions: effect of wake vortices, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2713–2733, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2713-2014, 2014. a
Unterstrasser, S., Gierens, K., Sölch, I., and Lainer, M.: Numerical simulations of homogeneously nucleated natural cirrus and contrail-cirrus. Part 1: How different are they?, Meteorol. Z., 26, 621–642, https://doi.org/10.1127/metz/2017/0861, 2017. a
Verma, P. and Burkhardt, U.: Contrail formation within cirrus: ICON-LEM simulations of the impact of cirrus cloud properties on contrail formation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8819–8842, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8819-2022, 2022. a
Voigt, C., Schumann, U., Minikin, A., Abdelmonem, A., Afchine, A., Borrmann, S., Boettcher, M., Buchholz, B., Bugliaro, L., Costa, A., Curtius, J., Dollner, M., Dörnbrack, A., Dreiling, V., Ebert, V., Ehrlich, A., Fix, A., Forster, L., Frank, F., Fütterer, D., Giez, A., Graf, K., Grooß, J.-U., Groß, S., Heimerl, K., Heinold, B., Hüneke, T., Järvinen, E., Jurkat, T., Kaufmann, S., Kenntner, M., Klingebiel, M., Klimach, T., Kohl, R., Krämer, M., Krisna, T. C., Luebke, A., Mayer, B., Mertes, S., Molleker, S., Petzold, A., Pfeilsticker, K., Port, M., Rapp, M., Reutter, P., Rolf, C., Rose, D., Sauer, D., Schäfler, A., Schlage, R., Schnaiter, M., Schneider, J., Spelten, N., Spichtinger, P., Stock, P., Walser, A., Weigel, R., Weinzierl, B., Wendisch, M., Werner, F., Wernli, H., Wirth, M., Zahn, A., Ziereis, H., and Zöger, M.: ML-CIRRUS: The airborne experiment on natural cirrus and contrail cirrus with the High-Altitude Long-Range Research Aircraft HALO, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98, 271–288, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00213.1, 2017. a, b, c
Winker, D. M., Vaughan, M. A., Omar, A., Hu, Y., Powell, K. A., Liu, Z., Hunt, W. H., and Young, S. A.: Overview of the CALIPSO mission and CALIOP data processing algorithms, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 26, 2310–2323, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHA1281.1, 2009. a
Wirth, M., Fix, A., Mahnke, P., Schwarzer, H., Schrandt, F., and Ehret, G.: The airborne multi-wavelength water vapor differential absorption lidar WALES: System design and performance, Appl. Phys. B-LAsers O., 96, 201–213, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-009-3365-7, 2009. a
Wolf, K., Bellouin, N., and Boucher, O.: Long-term upper-troposphere climatology of potential contrail occurrence over the Paris area derived from radiosonde observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 287–309, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-287-2023, 2023. a
Wolf, K., Bellouin, N., and Boucher, O.: Distribution and morphology of non-persistent contrail and persistent contrail formation areas in ERA5, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5009–5024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5009-2024, 2024. a
Short summary
Aviation affects the climate not only through carbon dioxide emissions but also by producing contrails that can alter the properties of natural cirrus clouds and influence the Earth's energy balance. In this study, we used detailed airborne laser measurements to detect contrails forming inside these clouds. We developed an automated method to identify and measure them, showing where they occur and providing a reliable way to monitor their climate impact without requiring flight data.
Aviation affects the climate not only through carbon dioxide emissions but also by producing...
