TY - JOUR
T1 - Profiles of MBL Cloud and Drizzle Microphysical Properties Retrieved From Ground-Based Observations and Validated by Aircraft In Situ Measurements Over the Azores
AU - Wu, Peng
AU - Dong, Xiquan
AU - Xi, Baike
AU - Tian, Jingjing
AU - Ward, Dale M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The aircraft and ground‐based measurements were obtained from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research, and Environmental Sciences Division. The data can be downloaded from https://www.archive.arm.gov/discovery/#v/results/s/fsite::ena .P. This research was supported by the NSF project under grant AGS‐1700728 at the University of Arizona and also supported as part of the “Enabling Aerosol‐cloud interactions at GLobal convection‐permitting scalES (EAGLES)” project (74358), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Earth System Modeling program with the subcontract to the University of Arizona. Special thanks to Jian Wang, PI of ACE‐ENA and the team of scientists and technicians who made this work possible by maintaining the instruments and collecting and processing the aircraft data for the ACE‐ENA field campaign. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract no. DE‐AC52‐07NA27344. Mikael Witte and the other two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their constructive comments, especially the suggestions regarding the aircraft data processing, which helped to improve the manuscript.
Funding Information:
The aircraft and ground-based measurements were obtained from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research, and Environmental Sciences Division. The data can be downloaded from https://www.archive.arm.gov/discovery/#v/results/s/fsite::ena.P. This research was supported by the NSF project under grant AGS-1700728 at the University of Arizona and also supported as part of the ?Enabling Aerosol-cloud interactions at GLobal convection-permitting scalES (EAGLES)? project (74358), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Earth System Modeling program with the subcontract to the University of Arizona. Special thanks to Jian Wang, PI of ACE-ENA and the team of scientists and technicians who made this work possible by maintaining the instruments and collecting and processing the aircraft data for the ACE-ENA field campaign. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344. Mikael Witte and the other two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their constructive comments, especially the suggestions regarding the aircraft data processing, which helped to improve the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/5/16
Y1 - 2020/5/16
N2 - The profiles of marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud and drizzle microphysical properties are important for studying the cloud-to-rain conversion and growth processes in MBL clouds. However, it is challenging to simultaneously retrieve both cloud and drizzle microphysical properties within an MBL cloud layer using ground-based observations. In this study, methods were developed to first decompose drizzle and cloud reflectivity in MBL clouds from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement cloud radar reflectivity measurements and then simultaneously retrieve cloud and drizzle microphysical properties during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign. These retrieved microphysical properties, such as cloud and drizzle particle size (rc and rm,d), their number concentration (Nc and Nd) and liquid water content (LWCc and LWCd), have been validated by aircraft in situ measurements during ACE-ENA (~158 hr of aircraft data). The mean surface retrieved (in situ measured) rc, Nc, and LWCc are 10.9 μm (11.8 μm), 70 cm−3 (60 cm−3), and 0.21 g m−3 (0.22 g m−3), respectively. For drizzle microphysical properties, the retrieved (in situ measured) rd, Nd, and LWCd are 44.9 μm (45.1 μm), 0.07 cm−3 (0.08 cm−3), and 0.052 g m−3 (0.066 g m−3), respectively. Treating the aircraft in situ measurements as truth, the estimated median retrieval errors are ~15% for rc, ~35% for Nc, ~30% for LWCc and rd, and ~50% for Nd and LWCd. The findings from this study will provide insightful information for improving our understanding of warm rain processes, as well as for improving model simulations. More studies are required over other climatic regions.
AB - The profiles of marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud and drizzle microphysical properties are important for studying the cloud-to-rain conversion and growth processes in MBL clouds. However, it is challenging to simultaneously retrieve both cloud and drizzle microphysical properties within an MBL cloud layer using ground-based observations. In this study, methods were developed to first decompose drizzle and cloud reflectivity in MBL clouds from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement cloud radar reflectivity measurements and then simultaneously retrieve cloud and drizzle microphysical properties during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign. These retrieved microphysical properties, such as cloud and drizzle particle size (rc and rm,d), their number concentration (Nc and Nd) and liquid water content (LWCc and LWCd), have been validated by aircraft in situ measurements during ACE-ENA (~158 hr of aircraft data). The mean surface retrieved (in situ measured) rc, Nc, and LWCc are 10.9 μm (11.8 μm), 70 cm−3 (60 cm−3), and 0.21 g m−3 (0.22 g m−3), respectively. For drizzle microphysical properties, the retrieved (in situ measured) rd, Nd, and LWCd are 44.9 μm (45.1 μm), 0.07 cm−3 (0.08 cm−3), and 0.052 g m−3 (0.066 g m−3), respectively. Treating the aircraft in situ measurements as truth, the estimated median retrieval errors are ~15% for rc, ~35% for Nc, ~30% for LWCc and rd, and ~50% for Nd and LWCd. The findings from this study will provide insightful information for improving our understanding of warm rain processes, as well as for improving model simulations. More studies are required over other climatic regions.
KW - aircraft measurements
KW - cloud and precipitation
KW - ground-based observations
KW - microphysics retrieval
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U2 - 10.1029/2019JD032205
DO - 10.1029/2019JD032205
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084517144
SN - 2169-897X
VL - 125
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
IS - 9
M1 - e2019JD032205
ER -