Characterizing the near-global cloud vertical structures over land using high-resolution radiosonde measurements

Xu, Hui; Guo, Jianping; Tong, Bing; Zhang, Jinqiang; Chen, Tianmeng; Guo, Xiaoran; Zhang, Jian; Chen, Wenqing

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15011-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 23

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15011-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15011-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 23

Research article

|

06 Dec 2023

Research article |

| 06 Dec 2023

Characterizing the near-global cloud vertical structures over land using high-resolution radiosonde measurements

Hui Xu, Jianping Guo, Bing Tong, Jinqiang Zhang, Tianmeng Chen, Xiaoran Guo, Jian Zhang, and Wenqing Chen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15011-2023-supplement

Data sets

ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present J. Muñoz Sabater https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac

Index of /climate_environment/CDC/observations_germany/radiosondes/high_resolution/historical/ DWD https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/CDC/observations_germany/radiosondes/high_resolution/historical/

Index of /data/us-radiosonde-bufr/archive NOAA https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/us-radiosonde-bufr/archive/

Access to RS92-GDP.2 GRUAN https://www.gruan.org/data/file-archive/rs92-gdp2-at-lc

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Short summary

The radiative effect of cloud remains one of the largest uncertain factors in climate change, largely due to the lack of cloud vertical structure (CVS) observations. The study presents the first near-global CVS climatology using high-vertical-resolution soundings. Single-layer cloud mainly occurs over arid regions. As the number of cloud layers increases, clouds tend to have lower bases and thinner layer thicknesses. The occurrence frequency of cloud exhibits a pronounced seasonal diurnal cycle.