Long-Term Retrievals of Cloud Type and Fair-Weather Shallow Cumulus Events at the ARM SGP Site

A long-term climatology of classified cloud types has been generated for 13 years (1997–2009) over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site for seven cloud categories: low clouds, congestus, deep convection, altocumulus, altostratus, cirrostratus/anvil, and cirrus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology 2019-10, Vol.36 (10), p.2031-2043
Main Authors: Sunny Lim, Kyo-Sun, Riihimaki, Laura D., Shi, Yan, Flynn, Donna, Kleiss, Jessica M., Berg, Larry K., Gustafson, William I., Zhang, Yunyan, Johnson, Karen L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Altocumulus clouds
Altostratus clouds
Atmospheric radiation
Atmospheric radiation measurements
Cirrostratus clouds
Cirrus clouds
Classification
Climate
Climate variability
Climatology
Cloud retrieval
Cloud types
Clouds
Convection
Cumulus clouds
Diurnal
Downward long wave radiation
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Fair weather
Identification
Lidar
Low clouds
North America
Precipitation
Radar
Radiation measurement
Remote sensing
Seasonal variation
Seasons
Software
Thickness
Wavelength
Weather
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Summary:A long-term climatology of classified cloud types has been generated for 13 years (1997–2009) over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site for seven cloud categories: low clouds, congestus, deep convection, altocumulus, altostratus, cirrostratus/anvil, and cirrus. The classification was based on the cloud macrophysical quantities of cloud top, cloud base, and physical thickness of cloud layers, as measured by active sensors such as the millimeter-wavelength cloud radar (MMCR) and micropulse lidar (MPL). Climate variability of cloud characteristics has been examined using the 13-yr cloud-type retrieval. Low clouds and cirrus showed distinct diurnal and seasonal cycles. Total cloud occurrence followed the variation of low clouds, with a diurnal peak in early afternoon and a seasonal maximum in late winter. Additionally, further work has been done to identify fair-weather shallow cumulus (FWSC) events for 9 years (2000–08). Periods containing FWSC, a subcategory of clouds classified as low clouds, were produced using cloud fraction information from a total-sky imager and ceilometer. The identified FWSC periods in our study show good agreement with manually identified FWSC, missing only 6 cases out of 70 possible events during the spring to summer seasons (May–August).
ISSN:0739-0572
1520-0426
DOI:10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0215.1