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Zhien Wang
and
Kenneth Sassen

Abstract

Apparent depletion of ozone in a cold (∼0°C), continental stratus cloud system was observed during in situ data collection on 30 April 1994 at the Department of Energy Clouds and Radiation Test Bed site in northern Oklahoma. Analyses of the aircraft data show a significant negative correlation between ozone concentration and liquid water content (LWC) in this cloud. Although droplets of pure water should not significantly affect ozone concentrations, water clouds can potentially perturb ozone through a number of processes, including radiative effects and aqueous-phase reactions in impure cloud droplets. A simple diagnostic model that takes account of cloud effects on the vertical ozone distribution in the boundary layer was constructed to interpret the field data. The results of multifactor regression analysis indicate that aqueous-phase chemistry contributes predominantly to the negative correlation. A depletion of ozone as a function of LWC of about −6.1 ppbv (g m−3)−1 was found in this particular stratus. In this case, the average in-cloud reduction of ozone is ∼6% for an average LWC of ∼0.3 g m−3 and ozone mixing ratio of ∼31 ppbv outside the cloud layer, which is in reasonable agreement with recent model results.

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Sujan Khanal
and
Zhien Wang

Abstract

Remote sensing and in situ measurements made during the Colorado Airborne Multiphase Cloud Study, 2010–2011 (CAMPS) with instruments aboard the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft are used to evaluate lidar–radar-retrieved cloud ice water content (IWC). The collocated remote sensing and in situ measurements provide a unique dataset for evaluation studies. Near-flight-level IWC retrieval is compared with an in situ probe: the Colorado closed-path tunable diode laser hygrometer (CLH). Statistical analysis showed that the mean radar–lidar IWC is within 26% of the mean in situ measurements for pure ice clouds and within 9% for liquid-topped mixed-phase clouds. Considering their different measurement techniques and different sample volumes, the comparison shows a statistically good agreement and is close to the measurement uncertainty of the CLH, which is around 20%. It is shown that ice cloud microphysics including ice crystal shape and orientation has a significant impact on IWC retrievals. These results indicate that the vertical profile of the retrieved lidar–radar IWC can be reliably combined with the flight-level measurements made by the in situ probes to provide a more complete picture of the cloud microphysics.

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Zhien Wang
and
Kenneth Sassen

Abstract

A cloud detection algorithm based on ground-based remote sensors has been developed that can differentiate among various atmospheric targets such as ice and water clouds, virga, precipitation, and aerosol layers. Standard cloud type and macrophysical properties are identified by combining polarization lidar, millimeter-wave radar, infrared radiometer, and dual-channel microwave radiometer measurements. These algorithms are applied to measurements collected during 1998 from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud and Radiation Test Bed site in north-central Oklahoma. The statistical properties of clouds for this year are presented, illustrating how extended-time remote sensing datasets can be converted to cloud properties of concern to climate research.

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Zhien Wang
and
Kenneth Sassen

Abstract

The lidar–radar algorithm described in Part I of this set of papers is applied to ∼1000 h of Raman lidar and millimeter wave cloud radar (MMCR) data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program Southern Great Plains Clouds and Radiation Testbed site in Oklahoma during the period from November 1996 to November 2000. The resulting statistics of cirrus microphysical and radiative properties show that most cirrus clouds are optically thin (mean optical depth of 0.58 with a standard deviation of 0.67) with low ice water path (mean 12.19 g m−2 with a standard deviation of 19.0). The seasonal changes of cirrus properties are relatively small except for the general effective radius (D ge). Strong temperature dependencies of ice water content, D ge, and extinction coefficients are found in the dataset, which are well described by second-order polynomial functions. The temperature and thickness dependencies of the cirrus properties are studied in detail, providing information useful in the validation and improvement of cirrus parameterizations in general circulation models. The limitations of the MMCR for cirrus detection are also considered through comparisons with results from the Raman lidar, which show that the MMCR fails to detect most thin cirrus with τ ≤ 0.1 and consistently underestimates physical cloud thickness. Comparisons with available data describing cirrus microphysical and radiative properties are made, and an improved cirrus particle extinction coefficient parameterization based on the combined lidar–radar approach is offered.

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David Atlas
and
Zhien Wang

Abstract

This work deals with two kinds of contrails. The first comprises a large number of optically thin contrails near the tropopause. They are mapped geographically using a lidar to obtain their height and a camera to obtain azimuth and elevation. These high-resolution maps provide the local contrail geometry and the amount of optically clear atmosphere. The second kind is a single trail of unprecedentedly large optical thickness that occurs at a lower height. The latter was observed fortuitously when an aircraft moving along the wind direction passed over the lidar, thus providing measurements for more than 3 h and an equivalent distance of 620 km. It was also observed by Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) sensors. The lidar measured an optical depth of 2.3. The corresponding extinction coefficient of 0.023 km−1 and ice water content of 0.063 g m−3 are close to the maximum values found for midlatitude cirrus. The associated large radar reflectivity compares to that measured by ultrasensitive radar, thus providing support for the reality of the large optical depth.

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Zhien Wang
and
Kenneth Sassen

Abstract

A retrieval algorithm is described to estimate vertical profiles of cirrus-cloud ice water content (IWC) and general effective size D ge from combined lidar and radar measurements. In the algorithm, the lidar extinction coefficient σ is parameterized as σ = IWC[a 0 + (a 1/D ge)] and water equivalent radar reflectivity factor Z e is parameterized as Z e = C′(IWC/ρ i ) D b ge , where a 0, a 1, C′, and b are constants based on the assumption of a modified gamma size distribution and hexagonal ice crystals. A comparison of retrieved results from a cirrus-cloud case study with aircraft in situ measurements indicates that the algorithm can provide reliable cirrus cloud microphysical properties. A technique to estimate ice water path and layer-mean D ge is also developed using the optical depth and mean radar reflectivity factor of the cloud layer.

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Min Deng
,
Gerald. G. Mace
, and
Zhien Wang

Abstract

The anvil productivities of tropical deep convection are investigated and compared among eight climatological regions using 4 yr of collocated and combined CloudSat and CALIPSO data. For all regions, the convective clusters become deeper while they become wider and tend to be composed of multiple rainy cores. Two strong detrainment layers from deep convection are observed at 6–8 km and above 10 km, which is consistent with the trimodal characteristics of tropical convection that are associated with different divergence, cloud detrainment, and fractional cloudiness. The anvil productivity of tropical deep convection depends on the convection scale, convective life stage or intensity, and large-scale environment. Anvil ice mass ratio related to the whole cluster starts to level off or decrease when the cluster effective scales W eff (the dimension of an equivalent rectangular with the same volume and height as the original cluster) increase to about 200 km wide, while the ratios of anvil scale and volume keep increasing from 0.4 to 0.6 and 0.15 to 0.4, respectively. The anvil clouds above 12 km can count for more than 20% of cluster volume, or more than 50% of total anvil volume, but they only count less than about 2% of total ice mass in the cluster. Anvil production of younger convection of the same W eff is higher than that of the decaying convection. The regional difference in the composite anvil productivities of tropical convective clusters sorted by W eff is subtle, while the occurrence frequencies of different scales of convection vary substantially.

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David Atlas
,
Zhien Wang
, and
David P. Duda

Abstract

This work is two pronged, discussing 1) the morphology of contrails and their transition to cirrus uncinus, and 2) their microphysical and radiative properties. It is based upon the fortuitous occurrence of an unusual set of essentially parallel contrails and the unanticipated availability of nearly simultaneous observations by photography, satellite, automated ground-based lidar, and a newly available database of aircraft flight tracks. The contrails, oriented from the northeast to southwest, are carried to the southeast with a component of the wind so that they are spread from the northwest to southeast. Convective turrets form along each contrail to form the cirrus uncinus with fallstreaks of ice crystals that are oriented essentially normal to the contrail length. Each contrail is observed sequentially by the lidar and tracked backward to the time and position of the originating aircraft track with the appropriate component of the wind. The correlation coefficient between predicted and actual time of arrival at the lidar is 0.99, so that one may identify both visually and satellite-observed contrails exactly. Contrails generated earlier in the westernmost flight corridor occasionally arrive simultaneously with those formed later closer to the lidar to produce broader cirrus fallstreaks and overlapping contrails on the satellite image. The minimum age of a contrail is >2 h and corresponds to the longest time of travel to the lidar. The lag between the initial formation of the contrail and its first detectability by Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is ≈33 min, thus accounting for the distance between the aircraft track and the first detectable contrail by satellite. The lidar also provides particle fall speeds and estimated sizes, optical extinction coefficients, optical thickness (τ = 0.35), and ice water path (IWP = 8.1 g m−2). These values correspond to the lower range of those found for midlatitude cirrus by Heymsfield et al. The ice water per meter of length along the cloud lines is 103–104 times that released by typical jet aircraft. The synthesis of these findings with those of prior investigators provides confidence in the present results. Various authors find that contrail-generated cirrus such as reported here contribute to net regional warming.

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Andrew J. Heymsfield
,
Zhien Wang
, and
Sergey Matrosov

Abstract

Airborne radar reflectivity measurements at frequencies of 9.6 and 94 GHz, with collocated, in situ particle size distribution and ice water content measurements from the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers (CRYSTAL) Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (FACE) in Florida in July 2002, offer one of the first opportunities to evaluate and improve algorithms for retrieving ice water content from single-wavelength spaceborne radar measurements. Both ice water content and radar reflectivity depend on the distribution of particle mass with size. It is demonstrated that single, power-law, mass dimensional relationships are unable to adequately account for the dominating contribution of small particles at lower reflectivities and large particles at higher reflectivities. To circumvent the need for multiple, or complex, mass dimensional relationships, analytic expressions that use particle ensemble mean ice particle densities that are derived from the coincident microphysical and radar observations are developed. These expressions, together with more than 5000 CRYSTAL FACE size distributions, are used to develop radar reflectivity–ice water content relationships for the two radar wavelengths that appear to provide improvements over earlier relationships, at least for convectively generated stratiform ice clouds.

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Jefferson R. Snider
,
David Leon
, and
Zhien Wang

Abstract

Several airborne field experiments have been conducted to verify model descriptions of cloud droplet activation. Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei and updraft are inputs to a parcel model that predicts droplet concentration and droplet size distributions (spectra). Experiments conducted within cumulus clouds have yielded the most robust agreement between model and observation. Investigations of stratocumulus clouds are more varied, in part because of the difficulty of gauging the effects of entrainment and drizzle on droplet concentration and spectra. Airborne lidar is used here to supplement the approach used in prior studies of droplet activation in stratocumulus clouds.

A model verification study was conducted using data acquired during the Southern Hemispheric VAMOS Ocean–Cloud–Aerosol–Land Study Regional Experiment. Consistency between observed and modeled droplet concentrations is achieved, but only after accounting for the effects of entrainment and drizzle on concentrations produced by droplet activation. In addition, predicted spectral dispersions are 74% of the measured dispersions following correction for instrument broadening. This result is consistent with the conjecture that differential activation (at cloud base) and internal mixing (i.e., mixing without entrainment) are important drivers of true spectral broadening.

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