Ice crystal number concentration estimates from lidar–radar satellite remote sensing – Part 1: Method and evaluation

The number concentration of cloud particles is a key quantity for understanding aerosol-cloud interactions and describing clouds in climate and numerical weather prediction models. In contrast with recent advances for liquid clouds, few observational constraints exist regarding the ice crystal numbe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmospheric chemistry and physics 2018-10, Vol.18 (19), p.14327-14350
Main Authors: Sourdeval, Odran, Gryspeerdt, Edward, Krämer, Martina, Goren, Tom, Delanoë, Julien, Afchine, Armin, Hemmer, Friederike, Quaas, Johannes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Climatology
Clouds (Meteorology)
Composition
Earth Sciences
Environmental aspects
Ice crystals
Measurement
Meteorology
Physics
Sciences of the Universe
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The number concentration of cloud particles is a key quantity for understanding aerosol-cloud interactions and describing clouds in climate and numerical weather prediction models. In contrast with recent advances for liquid clouds, few observational constraints exist regarding the ice crystal number concentration (N.sub.i). This study investigates how combined lidar-radar measurements can be used to provide satellite estimates of N.sub.i, using a methodology that constrains moments of a parameterized particle size distribution (PSD). The operational liDAR-raDAR (DARDAR) product serves as an existing base for this method, which focuses on ice clouds with temperatures T.sub.c < -30 °C.
ISSN:1680-7324
1680-7316
1680-7324
DOI:10.5194/acp-18-14327-2018