Research article
30 Apr 2014
Research article
| 30 Apr 2014
CLAAS: the CM SAF cloud property data set using SEVIRI
M. Stengel et al.
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Caroline A. Poulsen, Gregory R. McGarragh, Gareth E. Thomas, Martin Stengel, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, Elisa Carboni, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
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We have created a satellite cloud and radiation climatology from the ATSR-2 and AATSR on board ERS-2 and Envisat, respectively, which spans the period 1995–2012. The data set was created using a combination of optimal estimation and neural net techniques. The data set was created as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative program. The data set has been compared with active CALIOP lidar measurements and compared with MAC-LWP AND CERES-EBAF measurements and is shown to have good performance.
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
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In this study we analyse aerosol and cloud changes over southern China from 2006 to 2015 and investigate their possible interaction mechanisms. Results show decreasing aerosol loads and increasing liquid cloud cover in late autumn. Further analysis based on various satellite data sets shows consistency with the aerosol semi-direct effect, whereby less absorbing aerosols in the cloud layer would lead to an overall decrease in the evaporation of cloud droplets, thus increasing cloud amount.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Stephan Finkensieper, Benjamin Würzler, Daniel Philipp, Rainer Hollmann, Caroline Poulsen, Matthew Christensen, and Gregory McGarragh
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The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset contains global, cloud and radiative flux properties covering the period of 1982 to 2016. The properties were retrieved from AVHRR measurements recorded by afternoon satellites of the NOAA POES missions. Validation against CALIOP, BSRN and CERES demonstrates the high quality of the data. The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset allows for a large variety of climate applications that build on cloud properties, radiative flux properties and/or the link between them.
Vladimir S. Kostsov, Anke Kniffka, Martin Stengel, and Dmitry V. Ionov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5927–5946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5927-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5927-2019, 2019
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Cloud liquid water path (LWP) is one of the target atmospheric parameters retrieved remotely from ground-based and space-borne platforms. The LWP data delivered by the satellite instruments SEVIRI and AVHRR together with the data provided by the ground-based radiometer RPG-HATPRO near St. Petersburg, Russia, have been compared. Our study revealed considerable differences between LWP data from SEVIRI and AVHRR in winter over ice-covered relatively small water bodies in this region.
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
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Cloud glory and bow phenomena cause irregularities in satellite-based retrievals of cloud optical and microphysical properties. Here we combine two geostationary satellites over the same areas to analyze retrievals under those conditions. Results show a high sensitivity of retrievals to the assumed width of the cloud droplet size distribution and provide insights into possible improvements in satellite retrievals by appropriately adjusting this assumed parameter.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
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The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Salomon Eliasson, Karl Göran Karlsson, Erik van Meijgaard, Jan Fokke Meirink, Martin Stengel, and Ulrika Willén
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To enable fair comparisons of clouds between climate models and the
ESA Cloud_cci climate data record (CDR), we present a tool called the
Cloud_cci simulator. The tool takes into account the geometry and
cloud detection capabilities of the Cloud_cci CDR to allow fair
comparisons. We demonstrate the simulator on two climate models. We
find the impact of time sampling has a large effect on simulated cloud
water amount and that the simulator reduces the cloud cover by about
10 % globally.
Martin Stengel, Cornelia Schlundt, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Salomon Eliasson, Ulrika Willén, and Jan Fokke Meirink
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17601–17614, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17601-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17601-2018, 2018
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We present a new approach to evaluate ERA-Interim reanalysis clouds using satellite observations. A simplified satellite simulator was developed that uses reanalysis fields to emulate clouds as they would have been seen by those satellite sensors which were used to compose Cloud_cci observational cloud datasets. Our study facilitates an adequate evaluation of modelled ERA-Interim clouds using observational datasets, also taking into account systematic uncertainties in the observations.
Rocío Baró, Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero, Martin Stengel, Dominik Brunner, Gabriele Curci, Renate Forkel, Lucy Neal, Laura Palacios-Peña, Nicholas Savage, Martijn Schaap, Paolo Tuccella, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Stefano Galmarini
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Particles in the atmosphere, such as pollution, desert dust, and volcanic ash, have an impact on meteorology. They interact with incoming radiation resulting in a cooling effect of the atmosphere. Today, the use of meteorology and chemistry models help us to understand these processes, but there are a lot of uncertainties. The goal of this work is to evaluate how these interactions are represented in the models by comparing them to satellite data to see how close they are to reality.
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-554, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-554, 2018
Preprint withdrawn
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In this study we analyse aerosol and cloud changes over South China and investigate their possible interactions. The results show decreasing aerosol loads and increasing liquid clouds. Further analysis of these changes based on various satellite data sets show consistency with the aerosol semi-direct effect, whereby less absorbing aerosols in the cloud layer would lead to an overall decrease in evaporation of cloud droplets, thus increasing cloud amount and cover.
Oliver Sus, Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Gregory McGarragh, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Cornelia Schlundt, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Simon Proud, Matthias Jerg, Roy Grainger, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3373–3396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, 2018
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This paper presents a new cloud detection and classification framework, CC4CL. It applies a sophisticated optimal estimation method to derive cloud variables from satellite data of various polar-orbiting platforms and sensors (AVHRR, MODIS, AATSR). CC4CL provides explicit uncertainty quantification and long-term consistency for decadal timeseries at various spatial resolutions. We analysed 5 case studies to show that cloud height estimates are very realistic unless optically thin clouds overlap.
Gregory R. McGarragh, Caroline A. Poulsen, Gareth E. Thomas, Adam C. Povey, Oliver Sus, Stefan Stapelberg, Cornelia Schlundt, Simon Proud, Matthew W. Christensen, Martin Stengel, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
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Satellites are vital for measuring cloud properties necessary for climate prediction studies. We present a method to retrieve cloud properties from satellite based radiometric measurements. The methodology employed is known as optimal estimation and belongs in the class of statistical inversion methods based on Bayes' theorem. We show, through theoretical retrieval simulations, that the solution is stable and accurate to within 10–20% depending on cloud thickness.
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We present new cloud property datasets based on measurements from the passive imaging satellite sensors AVHRR, MODIS, ATSR2, AATSR and MERIS. Retrieval systems were developed that include cloud detection and cloud typing followed by optimal estimation retrievals of cloud properties (e.g. cloud-top pressure, effective radius, optical thickness, water path). Special features of all datasets are spectral consistency and rigorous uncertainty propagation from pixel-level data to monthly properties.
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Variability of convective cloud spans a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and is important for global weather and climate. This study uses satellite data from SEVIRI to quantify the diurnal cycle of cloud top temperatures over a large area. Results indicate that in some regions the diurnal cycle apparent in the observations may be significantly impacted by diurnal variability in the accuracy of the retrieval. These results may interest both the observation and modelling communities.
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Ralf Bennartz, Heidrun Höschen, Bruno Picard, Marc Schröder, Martin Stengel, Oliver Sus, Bojan Bojkov, Stefano Casadio, Hannes Diedrich, Salomon Eliasson, Frank Fell, Jürgen Fischer, Rainer Hollmann, Rene Preusker, and Ulrika Willén
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The microwave radiometers (MWR) on board ERS-1, ERS-2, and Envisat provide a continuous time series of brightness temperature observations between 1991 and 2012. Here we report on a new total column water vapour (TCWV) and wet tropospheric correction (WTC) dataset that builds on this time series. The dataset is publicly available under doi:10.5676/DWD_EMIR/V001.
M. Hummel, C. Hoose, M. Gallagher, D. A. Healy, J. A. Huffman, D. O'Connor, U. Pöschl, C. Pöhlker, N. H. Robinson, M. Schnaiter, J. R. Sodeau, M. Stengel, E. Toprak, and H. Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 6127–6146, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6127-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6127-2015, 2015
R. Lindstrot, M. Stengel, M. Schröder, J. Fischer, R. Preusker, N. Schneider, T. Steenbergen, and B. R. Bojkov
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A. Kniffka, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, R. Bennartz, and R. Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 887–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, 2014
K.-G. Karlsson, A. Riihelä, R. Müller, J. F. Meirink, J. Sedlar, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, J. Trentmann, F. Kaspar, R. Hollmann, and E. Wolters
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Revised manuscript under review for AMT
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Combined zenith and off-zenith ground-based observations by modern microwave radiometers provide an opportunity to study horizontal inhomogeneities of cloud cover. However, practical applications are difficult and require thorough analysis due to large variability of cloud parameters and specific observation geometry. We show principal requirements which should be met in order that the land-sea contrast of the cloud liquid water path could be successfully derived from microwave observations.
Vladimir S. Kostsov, Anke Kniffka, and Dmitry V. Ionov
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-387, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-387, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
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Studying interactions between different components of the climate system (the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the land surface) is an important scientific task due to the involvement of many processes. Cloud liquid water path (LWP) can be an indicator of some of these processes relevant to an exchange of moisture and heat between surface and atmosphere. The goal of the present study is to analyse the LWP horizontal inhomogeneities in the vicinity of various water bodies in Northern Europe.
Gregor Pante, Peter Knippertz, Andreas H. Fink, and Anke Kniffka
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 35–55, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-35-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-35-2021, 2021
Short summary
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Seasonal rainfall amounts along the densely populated West African Guinea coast have been decreasing during the past 35 years, with recently accelerating trends. We find strong indications that this is in part related to increasing human air pollution in the region. Given the fast increase in emissions, the political implications of this work are significant. Reducing air pollution locally and regionally would mitigate an imminent health crisis and socio-economic damage from reduced rainfall.
Caroline A. Poulsen, Gregory R. McGarragh, Gareth E. Thomas, Martin Stengel, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, Elisa Carboni, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2121–2135, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, 2020
Short summary
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We have created a satellite cloud and radiation climatology from the ATSR-2 and AATSR on board ERS-2 and Envisat, respectively, which spans the period 1995–2012. The data set was created using a combination of optimal estimation and neural net techniques. The data set was created as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative program. The data set has been compared with active CALIOP lidar measurements and compared with MAC-LWP AND CERES-EBAF measurements and is shown to have good performance.
Vladimir S. Kostsov, Dmitry V. Ionov, and Anke Kniffka
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4565–4587, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4565-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4565-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Previously, observations from satellites provided evidence for systematic differences between the values of the cloud liquid water path over land and water areas in northern Europe. An attempt is made to detect such differences by means of ground-based microwave measurements performed near the coastline of the Gulf of Finland. The results demonstrate the existence of the cloud liquid water path gradient, which is positive as in the case of the satellite measurements (larger values over land).
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 457–474, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-457-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-457-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we analyse aerosol and cloud changes over southern China from 2006 to 2015 and investigate their possible interaction mechanisms. Results show decreasing aerosol loads and increasing liquid cloud cover in late autumn. Further analysis based on various satellite data sets shows consistency with the aerosol semi-direct effect, whereby less absorbing aerosols in the cloud layer would lead to an overall decrease in the evaporation of cloud droplets, thus increasing cloud amount.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Stephan Finkensieper, Benjamin Würzler, Daniel Philipp, Rainer Hollmann, Caroline Poulsen, Matthew Christensen, and Gregory McGarragh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 41–60, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset contains global, cloud and radiative flux properties covering the period of 1982 to 2016. The properties were retrieved from AVHRR measurements recorded by afternoon satellites of the NOAA POES missions. Validation against CALIOP, BSRN and CERES demonstrates the high quality of the data. The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset allows for a large variety of climate applications that build on cloud properties, radiative flux properties and/or the link between them.
Vladimir S. Kostsov, Anke Kniffka, Martin Stengel, and Dmitry V. Ionov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5927–5946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5927-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5927-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud liquid water path (LWP) is one of the target atmospheric parameters retrieved remotely from ground-based and space-borne platforms. The LWP data delivered by the satellite instruments SEVIRI and AVHRR together with the data provided by the ground-based radiometer RPG-HATPRO near St. Petersburg, Russia, have been compared. Our study revealed considerable differences between LWP data from SEVIRI and AVHRR in winter over ice-covered relatively small water bodies in this region.
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2863–2879, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2863-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2863-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud glory and bow phenomena cause irregularities in satellite-based retrievals of cloud optical and microphysical properties. Here we combine two geostationary satellites over the same areas to analyze retrievals under those conditions. Results show a high sensitivity of retrievals to the assumed width of the cloud droplet size distribution and provide insights into possible improvements in satellite retrievals by appropriately adjusting this assumed parameter.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4963–4990, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Salomon Eliasson, Karl Göran Karlsson, Erik van Meijgaard, Jan Fokke Meirink, Martin Stengel, and Ulrika Willén
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 829–847, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-829-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-829-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
To enable fair comparisons of clouds between climate models and the
ESA Cloud_cci climate data record (CDR), we present a tool called the
Cloud_cci simulator. The tool takes into account the geometry and
cloud detection capabilities of the Cloud_cci CDR to allow fair
comparisons. We demonstrate the simulator on two climate models. We
find the impact of time sampling has a large effect on simulated cloud
water amount and that the simulator reduces the cloud cover by about
10 % globally.
Anke Kniffka, Peter Knippertz, and Andreas H. Fink
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 1623–1647, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1623-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1623-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The role of low-level clouds in the southern West Africa (SWA) energy balance and the West African monsoon system is assessed via targeted sensitivity studies with the NWP model ICON. We show for the first time that rainfall over SWA depends logarithmically on the optical thickness of low clouds, as these control the diurnal evolution of the planetary boundary layer, vertical stability and finally convection. Small variations in clouds or aerosol have a substantial impact on precipitation.
Martin Stengel, Cornelia Schlundt, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Salomon Eliasson, Ulrika Willén, and Jan Fokke Meirink
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17601–17614, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17601-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17601-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present a new approach to evaluate ERA-Interim reanalysis clouds using satellite observations. A simplified satellite simulator was developed that uses reanalysis fields to emulate clouds as they would have been seen by those satellite sensors which were used to compose Cloud_cci observational cloud datasets. Our study facilitates an adequate evaluation of modelled ERA-Interim clouds using observational datasets, also taking into account systematic uncertainties in the observations.
Rocío Baró, Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero, Martin Stengel, Dominik Brunner, Gabriele Curci, Renate Forkel, Lucy Neal, Laura Palacios-Peña, Nicholas Savage, Martijn Schaap, Paolo Tuccella, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Stefano Galmarini
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15183–15199, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15183-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15183-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Particles in the atmosphere, such as pollution, desert dust, and volcanic ash, have an impact on meteorology. They interact with incoming radiation resulting in a cooling effect of the atmosphere. Today, the use of meteorology and chemistry models help us to understand these processes, but there are a lot of uncertainties. The goal of this work is to evaluate how these interactions are represented in the models by comparing them to satellite data to see how close they are to reality.
Vladimir S. Kostsov, Anke Kniffka, and Dmitry V. Ionov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5439–5460, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5439-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5439-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Clouds are a very important component of the climate system and of the hydrological cycle in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. A joint analysis of the cloud parameters obtained remotely from satellite and ground-based observations near St Petersburg, Russia, has been made. Our study has revealed considerable differences between the cloud properties over land and over water areas in the region under investigation.
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Martin Stengel, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-554, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-554, 2018
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we analyse aerosol and cloud changes over South China and investigate their possible interactions. The results show decreasing aerosol loads and increasing liquid clouds. Further analysis of these changes based on various satellite data sets show consistency with the aerosol semi-direct effect, whereby less absorbing aerosols in the cloud layer would lead to an overall decrease in evaporation of cloud droplets, thus increasing cloud amount and cover.
Oliver Sus, Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Gregory McGarragh, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Cornelia Schlundt, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Simon Proud, Matthias Jerg, Roy Grainger, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3373–3396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a new cloud detection and classification framework, CC4CL. It applies a sophisticated optimal estimation method to derive cloud variables from satellite data of various polar-orbiting platforms and sensors (AVHRR, MODIS, AATSR). CC4CL provides explicit uncertainty quantification and long-term consistency for decadal timeseries at various spatial resolutions. We analysed 5 case studies to show that cloud height estimates are very realistic unless optically thin clouds overlap.
Gregory R. McGarragh, Caroline A. Poulsen, Gareth E. Thomas, Adam C. Povey, Oliver Sus, Stefan Stapelberg, Cornelia Schlundt, Simon Proud, Matthew W. Christensen, Martin Stengel, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3397–3431, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Satellites are vital for measuring cloud properties necessary for climate prediction studies. We present a method to retrieve cloud properties from satellite based radiometric measurements. The methodology employed is known as optimal estimation and belongs in the class of statistical inversion methods based on Bayes' theorem. We show, through theoretical retrieval simulations, that the solution is stable and accurate to within 10–20% depending on cloud thickness.
Michael Keller, Nico Kröner, Oliver Fuhrer, Daniel Lüthi, Juerg Schmidli, Martin Stengel, Reto Stöckli, and Christoph Schär
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5253–5264, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5253-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5253-2018, 2018
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Deep convection is often associated with thunderstorms and heavy rain events. In this study, the sensitivity of Alpine deep convective events to environmental parameters and climate warming is investigated. To this end, simulations are conducted at resolutions of 12 and 2 km. The results show that the climate change signal strongly depends upon the horizontal resolution. In particular, significant differences are found in terms of the radiative feedbacks.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Cornelia Schlundt, Caroline Poulsen, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Cintia Carbajal Henken, Rene Preusker, Jürgen Fischer, Abhay Devasthale, Ulrika Willén, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Gregory R. McGarragh, Simon Proud, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Jan Fokke Meirink, Artem Feofilov, Ralf Bennartz, Jedrzej S. Bojanowski, and Rainer Hollmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 881–904, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, 2017
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We present new cloud property datasets based on measurements from the passive imaging satellite sensors AVHRR, MODIS, ATSR2, AATSR and MERIS. Retrieval systems were developed that include cloud detection and cloud typing followed by optimal estimation retrievals of cloud properties (e.g. cloud-top pressure, effective radius, optical thickness, water path). Special features of all datasets are spectral consistency and rigorous uncertainty propagation from pixel-level data to monthly properties.
Nikos Benas, Stephan Finkensieper, Martin Stengel, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, Timo Hanschmann, Rainer Hollmann, and Jan Fokke Meirink
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 415–434, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-415-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-415-2017, 2017
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This study focuses on an evaluation of CLAAS-2 (Cloud property dAtAset using SEVIRI, Edition 2), which was created based on observations from geostationary Meteosat satellites. Using a variety of reference datasets, very good overall agreement is found. This suggests the usefulness of CLAAS-2 in applications ranging from high spatial and temporal resolution cloud process studies to the evaluation of regional climate models.
Sarah Taylor, Philip Stier, Bethan White, Stephan Finkensieper, and Martin Stengel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7035–7053, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, 2017
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Variability of convective cloud spans a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and is important for global weather and climate. This study uses satellite data from SEVIRI to quantify the diurnal cycle of cloud top temperatures over a large area. Results indicate that in some regions the diurnal cycle apparent in the observations may be significantly impacted by diurnal variability in the accuracy of the retrieval. These results may interest both the observation and modelling communities.
Karl-Göran Karlsson, Kati Anttila, Jörg Trentmann, Martin Stengel, Jan Fokke Meirink, Abhay Devasthale, Timo Hanschmann, Steffen Kothe, Emmihenna Jääskeläinen, Joseph Sedlar, Nikos Benas, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, Cornelia Schlundt, Diana Stein, Stefan Finkensieper, Nina Håkansson, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 5809–5828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5809-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5809-2017, 2017
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The paper presents the second version of a global climate data record based on satellite measurements from polar orbiting weather satellites. It describes the global evolution of cloudiness, surface albedo and surface radiation during the time period 1982–2015. The main improvements of algorithms are described together with some validation results. In addition, some early analysis is presented of some particularly interesting climate features (Arctic albedo and cloudiness + global cloudiness).
Ralf Bennartz, Heidrun Höschen, Bruno Picard, Marc Schröder, Martin Stengel, Oliver Sus, Bojan Bojkov, Stefano Casadio, Hannes Diedrich, Salomon Eliasson, Frank Fell, Jürgen Fischer, Rainer Hollmann, Rene Preusker, and Ulrika Willén
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1387–1402, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, 2017
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The microwave radiometers (MWR) on board ERS-1, ERS-2, and Envisat provide a continuous time series of brightness temperature observations between 1991 and 2012. Here we report on a new total column water vapour (TCWV) and wet tropospheric correction (WTC) dataset that builds on this time series. The dataset is publicly available under doi:10.5676/DWD_EMIR/V001.
M. Hummel, C. Hoose, M. Gallagher, D. A. Healy, J. A. Huffman, D. O'Connor, U. Pöschl, C. Pöhlker, N. H. Robinson, M. Schnaiter, J. R. Sodeau, M. Stengel, E. Toprak, and H. Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 6127–6146, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6127-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6127-2015, 2015
A. Werkmeister, M. Lockhoff, M. Schrempf, K. Tohsing, B. Liley, and G. Seckmeyer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2001–2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2001-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2001-2015, 2015
M. Schröder, R. Roca, L. Picon, A. Kniffka, and H. Brogniez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11129–11148, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11129-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11129-2014, 2014
U. Hamann, A. Walther, B. Baum, R. Bennartz, L. Bugliaro, M. Derrien, P. N. Francis, A. Heidinger, S. Joro, A. Kniffka, H. Le Gléau, M. Lockhoff, H.-J. Lutz, J. F. Meirink, P. Minnis, R. Palikonda, R. Roebeling, A. Thoss, S. Platnick, P. Watts, and G. Wind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2839–2867, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, 2014
R. Lindstrot, M. Stengel, M. Schröder, J. Fischer, R. Preusker, N. Schneider, T. Steenbergen, and B. R. Bojkov
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 6, 221–233, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-6-221-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-6-221-2014, 2014
A. Kniffka, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, R. Bennartz, and R. Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 887–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, 2014
K.-G. Karlsson, A. Riihelä, R. Müller, J. F. Meirink, J. Sedlar, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, J. Trentmann, F. Kaspar, R. Hollmann, and E. Wolters
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5351–5367, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5351-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5351-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Stability-dependent increases in liquid water with droplet number in the Arctic
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena
A climatology of open and closed mesoscale cellular convection over the Southern Ocean derived from Himawari-8 observations
New insights on the prevalence of drizzle in marine stratocumulus clouds based on a machine learning algorithm applied to radar Doppler spectra
Methodology to determine the coupling of continental clouds with surface and boundary layer height under cloudy conditions from lidar and meteorological data
Albedo susceptibility of northeastern Pacific stratocumulus: the role of covarying meteorological conditions
Opportunistic experiments to constrain aerosol effective radiative forcing
Environmental effects on aerosol–cloud interaction in non-precipitating marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the eastern North Atlantic
Addressing the difficulties in quantifying the Twomey effect for marine warm clouds from multi-sensor satellite observations and reanalysis
The Mount Everest plume in winter
Hemispheric contrasts in ice formation in stratiform mixed-phase clouds: disentangling the role of aerosol and dynamics with ground-based remote sensing
Microphysical process of precipitating hydrometeors from warm-front mid-level stratiform clouds revealed by ground-based lidar observations
Overview: Fusion of radar polarimetry and numerical atmospheric modelling towards an improved understanding of cloud and precipitation processes
A climatology of trade-wind cumulus cold pools and their link to mesoscale cloud organization
Global evidence of aerosol-induced invigoration in marine cumulus clouds
Impacts of the Saharan air layer on the physical properties of the Atlantic tropical cyclone cloud systems: 2003–2019
Two-year statistics of columnar-ice production in stratiform clouds over Hyytiälä, Finland: environmental conditions and the relevance to secondary ice production
Changes in cirrus cloud properties and occurrence over Europe during the COVID-19-caused air traffic reduction
A new conceptual model for adiabatic fog
Deciphering organization of GOES-16 green cumulus through the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) lens
Satellite retrieval of cloud base height and geometric thickness of low-level cloud based on CALIPSO
Lightning occurrences and intensity over the Indian region: long-term trends and future projections
Contrasting ice formation in Arctic clouds: surface-coupled vs. surface-decoupled clouds
Evaluation of the CMIP6 marine subtropical stratocumulus cloud albedo and its controlling factors
Identifying meteorological influences on marine low-cloud mesoscale morphology using satellite classifications
Optically thin clouds in the trades
Lidar observations of cirrus clouds in Palau (7°33′ N, 134°48′ E)
Observing the timescales of aerosol–cloud interactions in snapshot satellite images
Potential impact of aerosols on convective clouds revealed by Himawari-8 observations over different terrain types in eastern China
How frequent is natural cloud seeding from ice cloud layers ( < −35 °C) over Switzerland?
Processes contributing to cloud dissipation and formation events on the North Slope of Alaska
Characterisation and surface radiative impact of Arctic low clouds from the IAOOS field experiment
A-Train estimates of the sensitivity of the cloud-to-rainwater ratio to cloud size, relative humidity, and aerosols
Ice injected into the tropopause by deep convection – Part 2: Over the Maritime Continent
3D radiative heating of tropical upper tropospheric cloud systems derived from synergistic A-Train observations and machine learning
The potential of increasing man-made air pollution to reduce rainfall over southern West Africa
The dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique: a new concept in monitoring aerosol effects in liquid-water clouds – theoretical framework
The dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique: a new concept in monitoring aerosol effects in liquid-water clouds – case studies
Constraining the Twomey effect from satellite observations: issues and perspectives
Microphysical properties of three types of snow clouds: implication for satellite snowfall retrievals
Properties of ice cloud over Beijing from surface Ka-band radar observations during 2014–2017
Linkage among ice crystal microphysics, mesoscale dynamics, and cloud and precipitation structures revealed by collocated microwave radiometer and multifrequency radar observations
Possible mechanisms of summer cirrus clouds over the Tibetan Plateau
Mid-level clouds are frequent above the southeast Atlantic stratocumulus clouds
Towards the connection between snow microphysics and melting layer: insights from multifrequency and dual-polarization radar observations during BAECC
Cloud phase characteristics over Southeast Asia from A-Train satellite observations
Cloud regimes over the Amazon Basin: perspectives from the GoAmazon2014/5 campaign
Microphysics and dynamics of snowfall associated with a warm conveyor belt over Korea
Linking large-scale circulation patterns to low-cloud properties
Quantifying cloud adjustments and the radiative forcing due to aerosol–cloud interactions in satellite observations of warm marine clouds
Rebecca J. Murray-Watson and Edward Gryspeerdt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5743–5756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5743-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5743-2022, 2022
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Clouds are important to the Arctic surface energy budget, but the impact of aerosols on their properties is largely uncertain. This work shows that the response of liquid water path to cloud droplet number increases is strongly dependent on lower tropospheric stability (LTS), with weaker cooling effects in polluted clouds and at high LTS. LTS is projected to decrease in a warmer Arctic, reducing the cooling effect of aerosols and producing a positive, aerosol-dependent cloud feedback.
Ivana Kolmašová, Ondřej Santolík, and Kateřina Rosická
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3379–3389, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022, 2022
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The 2014–2015 winter brought an enormous number of lightning strokes to northern Europe, about 4 times more than their long-term median over the last decade. This unusual production of lightning, concentrated above the ocean and along the western coastal areas, was probably due to a combination of large-scale climatic events like El Niño and the North Atlantic Oscillation, causing increased sea surface temperatures and updraft strengths, which acted as additional thundercloud-charging drivers.
Francisco Lang, Luis Ackermann, Yi Huang, Son C. H. Truong, Steven T. Siems, and Michael J. Manton
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2135–2152, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2135-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2135-2022, 2022
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Marine low-level clouds cover vast areas of the Southern Ocean, and they are essential to the Earth system energy balance. We use 3 years of satellite observations to group low-level clouds by their spatial structure using a pattern-recognizing program. We studied two primary cloud type patterns, i.e. open and closed clouds. Open clouds are uniformly distributed over the storm track, while closed clouds are most predominant in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Closed clouds exhibit a daily cycle.
Zeen Zhu, Pavlos Kollias, Edward Luke, and Fan Yang
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-1102, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-1102, 2022
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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Drizzle (small rain droplet) is an important component of the warm clouds, however, its existence is poorly understood. In this study, we capitalized on a machine-learning algorithm to develop a drizzle detection method. We applied this algorithm to investigate drizzle occurrence and found out that drizzle is far more ubiquitous than previously thought. This study demonstrates the ubiquitous nature of drizzle in clouds and will benefit the understanding of the associated microphysical process.
Tianning Su, Youtong Zheng, and Zhanqing Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1453–1466, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, 2022
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To enrich our understanding of coupling of continental clouds, we developed a novel methodology to determine cloud coupling state from a lidar and a suite of surface meteorological instruments. This method is built upon advancement in our understanding of fundamental boundary layer processes and clouds. As the first remote sensing method for determining the coupling state of low clouds over land, this methodology paves a solid ground for further investigating the coupled land–atmosphere system.
Jianhao Zhang, Xiaoli Zhou, Tom Goren, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 861–880, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, 2022
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Oceanic liquid-form clouds are effective sunlight reflectors. Their brightness is highly sensitive to changes in the amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere and the state of the atmosphere they reside in. This study quantifies this sensitivity using long-term satellite observations and finds an overall cloud brightening (a cooling effect) potential and an essential role of the covarying meteorological conditions in governing this sensitivity for northeastern Pacific stratocumulus.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
Xiaojian Zheng, Baike Xi, Xiquan Dong, Peng Wu, Timothy Logan, and Yuan Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 335–354, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-335-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-335-2022, 2022
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This study uses ground-based observations to investigate the physical processes in the aerosol–cloud interactions in non-precipitating marine boundary layer clouds, over the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. Results show that the cloud responses to the aerosols are diminished with limited water vapor supply, while they are enhanced with increasing water vapor availability. The clouds are found to be most sensitive to the aerosols under sufficient water vapor and strong boundary layer turbulence.
Hailing Jia, Johannes Quaas, Edward Gryspeerdt, Christoph Böhm, and Odran Sourdeval
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-999, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-999, 2022
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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Aerosol–cloud interaction is the most uncertain component of the anthropogenic forcing of the climate. By combining satellite and reanalysis data, we show that the strength of the Twomey effect (S) increases remarkably with vertical velocity. Both the confounding effect of aerosol–precipitation interaction and the lack of vertical co-location between aerosol and cloud are found to overestimate S, whereas the retrieval biases in aerosol and cloud appear to underestimate S.
Edward Hindman and Scott Lindstrom
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-966, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-966, 2022
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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The plumes frequently seen attached to and streaming downwind of the Mt. Everest summit are often referred to as snow plumes, plumes of resuspended snow. To test this statement, we studied the peak using satellite images and the corresponding meteorology. The plumes we studied formed when moist air rose in the wake of the summit and condensed to form clouds. The plumes were not composed of resuspended snow, they were banner clouds.
Martin Radenz, Johannes Bühl, Patric Seifert, Holger Baars, Ronny Engelmann, Boris Barja González, Rodanthi-Elisabeth Mamouri, Félix Zamorano, and Albert Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17969–17994, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17969-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17969-2021, 2021
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This study brings together long-term ground-based remote-sensing observations of mixed-phase clouds at three key locations of aerosol–cloud interactions in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes. The findings contribute several new aspects on the nature of the excess of supercooled liquid clouds in the Southern Hemisphere, such as a long-term lidar-based estimate of ice-nucleating particle profiles as well as the effects of boundary layer coupling and gravity waves on ice formation.
Yang Yi, Fan Yi, Fuchao Liu, Yunpeng Zhang, Changming Yu, and Yun He
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17649–17664, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17649-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17649-2021, 2021
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Our lidar observations reveal the complete microphysical process of hydrometeors falling from mid-level stratiform clouds. We find that the surface rainfall begins as supercooled mixed-phase hydrometeors fall out of a liquid parent cloud base. We find also that the collision–coalescence growth of precipitating raindrops and subsequent spontaneous breakup always occur around 0.6 km altitude during surface rainfalls. Our findings provide new insights into stratiform precipitation formation.
Silke Trömel, Clemens Simmer, Ulrich Blahak, Armin Blanke, Sabine Doktorowski, Florian Ewald, Michael Frech, Mathias Gergely, Martin Hagen, Tijana Janjic, Heike Kalesse-Los, Stefan Kneifel, Christoph Knote, Jana Mendrok, Manuel Moser, Gregor Köcher, Kai Mühlbauer, Alexander Myagkov, Velibor Pejcic, Patric Seifert, Prabhakar Shrestha, Audrey Teisseire, Leonie von Terzi, Eleni Tetoni, Teresa Vogl, Christiane Voigt, Yuefei Zeng, Tobias Zinner, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17291–17314, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, 2021
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The article introduces the ACP readership to ongoing research in Germany on cloud- and precipitation-related process information inherent in polarimetric radar measurements, outlines pathways to inform atmospheric models with radar-based information, and points to remaining challenges towards an improved fusion of radar polarimetry and atmospheric modelling.
Raphaela Vogel, Heike Konow, Hauke Schulz, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16609–16630, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16609-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16609-2021, 2021
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The shallow cumulus clouds that populate the trade-wind regions can produce substantial amounts of rain. Before reaching the surface, part of the rain can evaporate and form pools of cold air that spread at the surface as density currents. We use 10 years of data from Barbados to show that such cold pools occur on 3 out of 4 d, that cold-pool periods are 90 % cloudier relative to the average winter conditions, and that they are connected to specific patterns of mesoscale cloud organization.
Alyson Douglas and Tristan L'Ecuyer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15103–15114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15103-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15103-2021, 2021
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When aerosols enter the atmosphere, they interact with the clouds above in what we term aerosol–cloud interactions and lead to a series of reactions which delay the onset of rain. This delay may lead to increased rain rates, or invigoration, when the cloud eventually rains. We show that aerosol leads to invigoration in certain environments. The strength of the invigoration depends on how large the cloud is, which suggests that it is highly tied to the organization of the cloud system.
Hao Luo and Yong Han
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15171–15184, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15171-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15171-2021, 2021
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The various feedbacks of Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) to the Saharan air layer (SAL) are determined by the combined effects of dry air masses, the dust aerosols as ice nuclei, and dynamic, thermodynamic, and moisture conditions. The specific influence mechanisms of SAL on the three intensities of TCs (tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricane) are different. The conclusions are beneficial to our recognition of the physical process and evolution of TCs in the Atlantic region.
Haoran Li, Ottmar Möhler, Tuukka Petäjä, and Dmitri Moisseev
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14671–14686, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14671-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14671-2021, 2021
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In natural clouds, ice-nucleating particles are expected to be rare above –10 °C. In the current paper, we found that the formation of ice columns is frequent in stratiform clouds and is associated with increased precipitation intensity and liquid water path. In single-layer shallow clouds, the production of ice columns was attributed to secondary ice production, despite the rime-splintering process not being expected to take place in such clouds.
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
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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.
Felipe Toledo, Martial Haeffelin, Eivind Wærsted, and Jean-Charles Dupont
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13099–13117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13099-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13099-2021, 2021
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The article presents a new conceptual model to describe the temporal evolution of continental fog layers, developed based on 7 years of fog measurements performed at the SIRTA observatory, France. This new paradigm relates the visibility reduction caused by fog to its vertical thickness and liquid water path and provides diagnostic variables that could substantially improve the reliability of fog dissipation nowcasting at a local scale, based on real-time profiling observation.
Tom Dror, Mickaël D. Chekroun, Orit Altaratz, and Ilan Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12261–12272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12261-2021, 2021
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A part of continental shallow convective cumulus (Cu) was shown to share properties such as organization and formation over vegetated areas, thus named green Cu. Mechanisms behind the formed patterns are not understood. We use different metrics and an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) to decompose the dataset and quantify organization factors (cloud streets and gravity waves). We show that clouds form a highly organized grid structure over hundreds of kilometers at the field lifetime.
Xin Lu, Feiyue Mao, Daniel Rosenfeld, Yannian Zhu, Zengxin Pan, and Wei Gong
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11979–12003, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11979-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11979-2021, 2021
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In this paper, a novel method for retrieving cloud base height and geometric thickness is developed and applied to produce a global climatology of boundary layer clouds with a high accuracy. The retrieval is based on the 333 m resolution low-level cloud distribution as obtained from the CALIPSO lidar data. The main part of the study describes the variability of cloud vertical geometrical properties in space, season, and time of the day. Resultant new insights are presented.
Rohit Chakraborty, Arindam Chakraborty, Ghouse Basha, and Madineni Venkat Ratnam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11161–11177, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11161-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11161-2021, 2021
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In this study, urbanization-induced surface warming has been found to trigger prominent changes in upper-troposphere–lower-stratosphere regions leading to stronger and more frequent lightning extremes over India. Consequently, the implementation of this hypothesis in global climate models reveals that lightning frequency and intensity values across India will rise by ~10–25 % and 15–50 %, respectively, by 2100 at the current urbanization rate, which should be alarming for present policymakers.
Hannes J. Griesche, Kevin Ohneiser, Patric Seifert, Martin Radenz, Ronny Engelmann, and Albert Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10357–10374, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10357-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10357-2021, 2021
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Heterogeneous ice formation in Arctic mixed-phase clouds under consideration of their surface-coupling state is investigated. Cloud phase and macrophysical properties were determined by means of lidar and cloud radar measurements, the coupling state, and cloud minimum temperature by radiosonde profiles. Above −15 °C cloud minimum temperature, surface-coupled clouds are more likely to contain ice by a factor of 2–6. By means of a literature survey, causes of the observed effects are discussed.
Bida Jian, Jiming Li, Guoyin Wang, Yuxin Zhao, Yarong Li, Jing Wang, Min Zhang, and Jianping Huang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9809–9828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9809-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9809-2021, 2021
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We evaluate the performance of the AMIP6 model in simulating cloud albedo over marine subtropical regions and the impacts of different aerosol types and meteorological factors on the cloud albedo based on multiple satellite datasets and reanalysis data. The results show that AMIP6 demonstrates moderate improvement over AMIP5 in simulating the monthly variation in cloud albedo, and changes in different aerosol types and meteorological factors can explain ~65 % of the changes in the cloud albedo.
Johannes Mohrmann, Robert Wood, Tianle Yuan, Hua Song, Ryan Eastman, and Lazaros Oreopoulos
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9629–9642, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9629-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9629-2021, 2021
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Observations of marine-boundary-layer conditions are composited by cloud type, based on a new classification dataset. It is found that two cloud types, representing regions of clustered and suppressed low-level clouds, occur in very similar large-scale conditions but are distinguished from each other by considering low-level circulation and surface wind fields, validating prior results from modeling.
Theresa Mieslinger, Bjorn Stevens, Tobias Kölling, Manfred Brath, Martin Wirth, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-453, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-453, 2021
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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The trades are home to a plethora of small cumulus clouds, often barely visible to the human eye and difficult to detect with active and passive remote sensing methods. With the help of a new method and by means of high-resolution data we can detect small and particularly thin clouds. We find that optically thin clouds are a common phenomenon in the trades covering a large area and influencing the radiative effect of clouds if they are undetected and contaminate the clear-sky signal.
Francesco Cairo, Mauro De Muro, Marcel Snels, Luca Di Liberto, Silvia Bucci, Bernard Legras, Ajil Kottayil, Andrea Scoccione, and Stefano Ghisu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 7947–7961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7947-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7947-2021, 2021
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A lidar was used in Palau from February–March 2016. Clouds were observed peaking at 3 km below the high cold-point tropopause (CPT). Their occurrence was linked with cold anomalies, while in warm cases, cirrus clouds were restricted to 5 km below the CPT. Thin subvisible cirrus (SVC) near the CPT had distinctive characteristics. They were linked to wave-induced cold anomalies. Back trajectories are mostly compatible with convective outflow, while some distinctive SVC may originate in situ.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Tom Goren, and Tristan W. P. Smith
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6093–6109, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6093-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6093-2021, 2021
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Cloud responses to aerosol are time-sensitive, but this development is rarely observed. This study uses isolated aerosol perturbations from ships to measure this development and shows that macrophysical (width, cloud fraction, detectability) and microphysical (droplet number) properties of ship tracks vary strongly with time since emission, background cloud and meteorological state. This temporal development should be considered when constraining aerosol–cloud interactions with observations.
Tianmeng Chen, Zhanqing Li, Ralph A. Kahn, Chuanfeng Zhao, Daniel Rosenfeld, Jianping Guo, Wenchao Han, and Dandan Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6199–6220, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6199-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6199-2021, 2021
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A convective cloud identification process is developed using geostationary satellite data from Himawari-8.
Convective cloud fraction is generally larger before noon and smaller in the afternoon under polluted conditions, but megacities and complex topography can influence the pattern.
A robust relationship between convective cloud and aerosol loading is found. This pattern varies with terrain height and is modulated by varying thermodynamic, dynamical, and humidity conditions during the day.
Ulrike Proske, Verena Bessenbacher, Zane Dedekind, Ulrike Lohmann, and David Neubauer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5195–5216, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5195-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5195-2021, 2021
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Ice crystals falling out of one cloud can initiate freezing in a second cloud below. We estimate the occurrence frequency of this natural cloud seeding over Switzerland from satellite data and sublimation calculations. We find that such situations with an ice cloud above another cloud are frequent and that the falling crystals survive the fall between two clouds in a significant number of cases, suggesting that natural cloud seeding is an important phenomenon over Switzerland.
Joseph Sedlar, Adele Igel, and Hagen Telg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4149–4167, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4149-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4149-2021, 2021
Julia Maillard, François Ravetta, Jean-Christophe Raut, Vincent Mariage, and Jacques Pelon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4079–4101, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4079-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4079-2021, 2021
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Clouds remain a major source of uncertainty in understanding the Arctic climate, due in part to the lack of measurements over the sea ice. In this paper, we exploit a series of lidar profiles acquired from autonomous drifting buoys deployed in the Arctic Ocean and derive a statistic of low cloud frequency and macrophysical properties. We also show that clouds contribute to warm the surface in the shoulder seasons but not significantly from May to September.
Kevin M. Smalley and Anita D. Rapp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2765–2779, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2765-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2765-2021, 2021
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We use satellite observations of shallow cumulus clouds to investigate the influence of cloud size on the ratio of cloud water path to rainwater (WRR) in different environments. For a fixed temperature and relative humidity, WRR increases with cloud size, but it varies little with aerosols. These results imply that increasing WRR with rising temperature relates not only to deeper clouds but also to more frequent larger clouds.
Iris-Amata Dion, Cyrille Dallet, Philippe Ricaud, Fabien Carminati, Thibaut Dauhut, and Peter Haynes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2191–2210, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2191-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2191-2021, 2021
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Ice in the tropopause has a strong radiative effect on climate. The amount of ice injected (∆IWC) up to the tropical tropopause layer has been shown to be the highest over the Maritime Continent (MC), a region that includes Indonesia. ∆IWC is studied over islands and sea of the MC. Space-borne observations of ice, precipitation and lightning are used to estimate ∆IWC and are compared to ∆IWC estimated from the ERA5 reanalyses. It is shown that Java is the area of the greatest ∆IWC over the MC.
Claudia J. Stubenrauch, Giacomo Caria, Sofia E. Protopapadaki, and Friederike Hemmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1015–1034, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1015-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1015-2021, 2021
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Tropical anvils formed by convective outflow play a crucial role in modulating the Earth’s energy budget and heat transport. To explore the relation between these anvils and convection, we built 3D radiative heating fields, based on machine learning employed on cloud and atmospheric properties from IR sounder and meteorological reanalyses, trained on lidar–radar retrievals. The 15-year time series reveals colder convective systems during warm periods, affecting the atmospheric heating structure.
Gregor Pante, Peter Knippertz, Andreas H. Fink, and Anke Kniffka
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 35–55, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-35-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-35-2021, 2021
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Seasonal rainfall amounts along the densely populated West African Guinea coast have been decreasing during the past 35 years, with recently accelerating trends. We find strong indications that this is in part related to increasing human air pollution in the region. Given the fast increase in emissions, the political implications of this work are significant. Reducing air pollution locally and regionally would mitigate an imminent health crisis and socio-economic damage from reduced rainfall.
Cristofer Jimenez, Albert Ansmann, Ronny Engelmann, David Donovan, Aleksey Malinka, Jörg Schmidt, Patric Seifert, and Ulla Wandinger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15247–15263, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15247-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15247-2020, 2020
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A novel lidar method to study cloud microphysical properties (of liquid water clouds) and to study aerosol–cloud interaction (ACI) is developed and presented in this paper. In Part 1, the theoretical framework including an error analysis is given together with an overview of the aerosol information that the same lidar system can obtain. The ACI concept based on aerosol and cloud information is also explained. Applications of the proposed approach to lidar measurements are presented in Part 2.
Cristofer Jimenez, Albert Ansmann, Ronny Engelmann, David Donovan, Aleksey Malinka, Patric Seifert, Robert Wiesen, Martin Radenz, Zhenping Yin, Johannes Bühl, Jörg Schmidt, Boris Barja, and Ulla Wandinger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15265–15284, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15265-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15265-2020, 2020
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Part 2 presents the application of the dual-FOV polarization lidar technique introduced in Part 1. A lidar system was upgraded with a second polarization telescope, and it was deployed at the southernmost tip of South America. A comparison with alternative remote sensing techniques and the evaluation of the aerosol–cloud–wind relation in a convective boundary layer in pristine marine conditions are presented in two case studies, demonstrating the potential of the approach for ACI studies.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
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Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Hwayoung Jeoung, Guosheng Liu, Kwonil Kim, Gyuwon Lee, and Eun-Kyoung Seo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14491–14507, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14491-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14491-2020, 2020
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Radar and radiometer observations were used to study cloud liquid and snowfall in three types of snow clouds. While near-surface and shallow clouds have an area fraction of 90 %, deep clouds contribute half of the total snowfall volume. Deeper clouds have heavier snowfall, although cloud liquid is equally abundant in all three cloud types. The skills of a GMI Bayesian algorithm are examined. Snowfall in deep clouds may be reasonably retrieved, but it is challenging for near-surface clouds.
Juan Huo, Yufang Tian, Xue Wu, Congzheng Han, Bo Liu, Yongheng Bi, Shu Duan, and Daren Lyu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14377–14392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14377-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14377-2020, 2020
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A detailed analysis of ice cloud physical properties is presented based on 4 years of surface Ka-band radar measurements in Beijing, where the summer oceanic monsoon from the ocean and winter continental monsoon prevail alternately. More than 6000 ice cloud clusters were studied to investigate their physical properties, such as height, horizontal extent, temperature dependence and origination type, which can serve as a reference for parameterization and characterization in global climate models.
Jie Gong, Xiping Zeng, Dong L. Wu, S. Joseph Munchak, Xiaowen Li, Stefan Kneifel, Davide Ori, Liang Liao, and Donifan Barahona
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12633–12653, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12633-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12633-2020, 2020
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This work provides a novel way of using polarized passive microwave measurements to study the interlinked cloud–convection–precipitation processes. The magnitude of differences between polarized radiances is found linked to ice microphysics (shape, size, orientation and density), mesoscale dynamic and thermodynamic structures, and surface precipitation. We conclude that passive sensors with multiple polarized channel pairs may serve as cheaper and useful substitutes for spaceborne radar sensors.
Feng Zhang, Qiu-Run Yu, Jia-Li Mao, Chen Dan, Yanyu Wang, Qianshan He, Tiantao Cheng, Chunhong Chen, Dongwei Liu, and Yanping Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11799–11808, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11799-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11799-2020, 2020
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In this work, we make the three main contributions. (1) We reveal the remarkable differences in the geographical distributions of cirrus over the Tibetan Plateau regarding the cloud top height. (2) The orography, gravity wave, and deep convection determine the formation of cirrus with a cloud top below 9, at 9–12, and above 12 km, respectively. (3) It is the first time the contributions of the Tibetan Plateau to the presence of cirrus on a regional scale are discussed.
Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, Paquita Zuidema, Ian Chang, Sharon P. Burton, and Brian Cairns
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11025–11043, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11025-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11025-2020, 2020
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Over the southeast Atlantic, interactions between the low-level clouds and the overlying smoke aerosols have previously been highlighted, but no study has yet focused on the presence of the mid-level clouds that complicate the aerosol–cloud interactions. Here we show that these optically thin super-cooled mid-level clouds are relatively common, and they frequently occur at the top of the smoke layer between August and October with significant radiative impacts on the low-level clouds.
Haoran Li, Jussi Tiira, Annakaisa von Lerber, and Dmitri Moisseev
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9547–9562, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9547-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9547-2020, 2020
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A method for classifying rimed and unrimed snow based on X- and Ka-band Doppler radar measurements is developed and applied to synergetic radar observations collected during BAECC 2014. The results show that the radar-observed melting layer properties are highly related to the precipitation intensity. The previously reported bright band sagging is mainly connected to the increase in precipitation intensity, while riming plays a secondary role.
Yulan Hong and Larry Di Girolamo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8267–8291, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8267-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8267-2020, 2020
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Cloud phase plays a crucial role in Earth radiation budget but is not well understood. Using A-Train satellite observations, this study provides climatological studies of cloud phase characteristics over Southeast Asia on multiple meteorological scales. Results show that ice, liquid, and ice over liquid clouds display distinct spatial heterogeneity and spectral radiance features. The intraseasonal and interannual behaviors of cloud phases are useful to track the MJO and ENSO.
Scott E. Giangrande, Dié Wang, and David B. Mechem
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 7489–7507, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7489-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7489-2020, 2020
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The Amazon basin experiences prolific and diverse cloud conditions that are strongly influenced by (and influence via feedbacks) seasonal shifts in the local conditions and larger-scale atmospheric circulations. The primary atmospheric regimes observed during a heavily instrumented 2-year Amazon deployment are classified. We assess the potential atmospheric controls on convective clouds, precipitation, and the propensity for these regimes to promote extremes in precipitation.
Josué Gehring, Annika Oertel, Étienne Vignon, Nicolas Jullien, Nikola Besic, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 7373–7392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7373-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7373-2020, 2020
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In this study, we analyse how large-scale meteorological conditions influenced the local enhancement of snowfall during an intense precipitation event in Korea. We used atmospheric models, weather radars and snowflake images. We found out that a rising airstream in the warm sector of the low pressure system associated to this event influenced the evolution of snowfall. This study highlights the importance of interactions between large and local scales in this intense precipitation event.
Timothy W. Juliano and Zachary J. Lebo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 7125–7138, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7125-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7125-2020, 2020
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In this study, we use a machine learning method to examine the relationship between synoptic-scale changes in the North Pacific High structure and maritime cloud properties. Our novel approach suggests that there is a wide range (>30 W m−2, ~20 % of magnitude) of possible shortwave cloud radiative effect that is a clear function of the circulation pattern. We hope that this work will help improve fundamental understanding of the sensitivity of the climate system to various warm-cloud regimes.
Alyson Douglas and Tristan L'Ecuyer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6225–6241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6225-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6225-2020, 2020
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Aerosols, or small, suspended droplets in the atmosphere, are released from anthropogenic activity and interact with warm clouds, leading to changes in the clouds' brightness and size. Our study evaluates how aerosols alter warm clouds and their ability to cool the Earth's surface. We find aerosols make clouds brighter and grow larger in the atmosphere; however, the cooling effect due to whiter, brighter clouds is 5 times the cooling due to an increased extent.
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