The prevalence of precipitation from polar supercooled clouds

Silber, Israel; Fridlind, Ann M.; Verlinde, Johannes; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Cesana, Grégory V.; Knopf, Daniel A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3949-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3949-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3949-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 5

Research article

|

17 Mar 2021

Research article |

| 17 Mar 2021

The prevalence of precipitation from polar supercooled clouds

Israel Silber, Ann M. Fridlind, Johannes Verlinde, Andrew S. Ackerman, Grégory V. Cesana, and Daniel A. Knopf

Data sets

Balloon-Borne Sounding System (SONDEWNPN). 2011-11-01 to 2019-04-30, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1021460

MWR Retrievals (MWRRET1LILJCLOU). 2011-11-01 to 2019-04-30, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1285691

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORGE). 2011-11-11 to 2014-02-07, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1228770

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORMD). 2011-11-11 to 2014-02-07, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1350634

Ka ARM Zenith Radar (KAZRSPECCMASKGECOPOL). 2015-01-19 to 2015-01-20, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1025218

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORGE). 2014-02-08 to 2019-04-30, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1389054

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORMD). 2014-02-08 to 2019-04-30, North Slope Alaska (NSA) Central Facility, Barrow AK (C1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1350634

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORGE). 2015-11-18 to 2017-01-02, ARM Mobile Facility (AWR) McMurdo Station Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica; AMF2 (M1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1389054

KAZR Corrected Data (KAZRCORMD). 2015-11-17 to 2017-01-02, ARM Mobile Facility (AWR) McMurdo Station Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica; AMF2 (M1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1350634

Balloon-Borne Sounding System (SONDEWNPN). 2015-11-30 to 2017-01-03, ARM Mobile Facility (AWR) McMurdo Station Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica; AMF2 (M1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1021460

MWR Retrievals (MWRRET1LILJCLOU). 2016-01-30 to 2017-01-01, ARM Mobile Facility (AWR) McMurdo Station Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica; AMF2 (M1) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility https://doi.org/10.5439/1027369

Short summary

Long-term ground-based radar and sounding measurements over Alaska (Antarctica) indicate that more than 85 % (75 %) of supercooled clouds are precipitating at cloud base and that 75 % (50 %) are precipitating to the surface. Such high prevalence is reconciled with lesser spaceborne estimates by considering radar sensitivity. Results provide a strong observational constraint for polar cloud processes in large-scale models.