Impact of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity and directional sampling on the retrieval of cloud droplet size by the POLDER instrument

Shang, H.; Chen, L.; Bréon, F. M.; Letu, H.; Li, S.; Wang, Z.; Su, L.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4931-2015

Articles | Volume 8, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4931-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4931-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 11

Research article

|

24 Nov 2015

Research article |

| 24 Nov 2015

Impact of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity and directional sampling on the retrieval of cloud droplet size by the POLDER instrument

H. Shang, L. Chen, F. M. Bréon, H. Letu, S. Li, Z. Wang, and L. Su

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Nov 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 01 Jul 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C2326: 'Review comments of “A better understanding of POLDER’s cloud droplet size retrieval: Impact of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity and directional sampling” by Shang et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 31 Jul 2015
SC C2558: 'Averaging properties of size distributions', Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, 13 Aug 2015
- AC C3260: 'The calculation of cloud effective radius and variance for combined gamma distribution', Huazhe Shang, 13 Oct 2015
- AC C3576: 'Response to Dr. Bastiaan van Diedenhoven', Huazhe Shang, 27 Oct 2015
RC C3184: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Oct 2015

Short summary

The cloud droplet size retrieval of POLDER is accurate even when the measurements are limited. The algorithm can be improved by (1) including the measurements in the primary rainbow region to provide accurate large droplet (>15 µm) retrievals; (2) performing higher-resolution retrieval (42 km × 42 km) to ensure more successful retrievals and reduce the bias introduced by cloud horizontal inhomogeneity.