ALBERT

Description: This study uses aircraft measurements of relative humidity and ice crystal size distribution collected during the SPARTICUS (Small PARTicles In CirrUS) field campaign to evaluate and constrain ice cloud parameterizations in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5. About 200 h of data were collected during the campaign between January and June 2010, providing the longest aircraft measurements available so far for cirrus clouds in the midlatitudes. The probability density function (PDF) of ice crystal number concentration (Ni) derived from the high-frequency (1 Hz) measurements features a strong dependence on ambient temperature. As temperature decreases from −35 °C to −62 °C, the peak in the PDF shifts from 10–20 L−1 to 200–1000 L−1, while Ni shows a factor of 6–7 increase. Model simulations are performed with two different ice nucleation schemes for pure ice-phase clouds. One of the schemes can reproduce a clear increase of Ni with decreasing temperature by using either an observation-based ice nuclei spectrum or a classical-theory-based spectrum with a relatively low (5–10%) maximum freezing ratio for dust aerosols. The simulation with the other scheme, which assumes a high maximum freezing ratio (100%), shows much weaker temperature dependence of Ni. Simulations are also performed to test empirical parameters related to water vapor deposition and the autoconversion of ice crystals to snow. Results show that a value between 0.05 and 0.1 for the water vapor deposition coefficient, and 250 μm for the critical diameter that distinguishes ice crystals from snow, can produce good agreement between model simulation and the SPARTICUS measurements in terms of Ni and effective radius. The climate impact of perturbing these parameters is also discussed.

Description: The cloud property known as "effective diameter" or "effective radius", which in essence is the cloud particle size distribution (PSD) volume at bulk density divided by its projected area, is used extensively in atmospheric radiation transfer, climate modeling and remote sensing. This derives from the assumption that PSD optical properties can be uniquely described in terms of their effective diameter, De, and their cloud water content (CWC), henceforth referred to as the De-CWC assumption. This study challenges this assumption, showing that while the De-CWC assumption appears generally valid for liquid water clouds, it appears less valid for ice clouds in regions where (1) absorption is not primarily a function of either the PSD ice water content (IWC) or the PSD projected area, and (2) where wave resonance (i.e. photon tunneling) contributes significantly to absorption. These two regions often strongly coincide at terrestrial wavelengths when De

Description: Ice particle mass- and projected area-dimension (m-D and A-D) power laws are commonly used in the treatment of ice cloud microphysical and optical properties and the remote sensing of ice cloud properties. Although there has long been evidence that a single m-D or A-D power law is often not valid over all ice particle sizes, few studies have addressed this fact. This study develops self-consistent m-D and A-D expressions that are not power laws, but can easily be reduced to power laws for the ice particle size (maximum dimension or D) range of interest, and they are valid over a much larger D range than power laws. This was done by combining field measurements of individual ice particle m and D formed at temperature T 〈 −20 °C with 2-dimensional stereo (2D-S) and Cloud Particle Imager (CPI) probe measurements (or estimates) of D, A and m in synoptic and anvil ice clouds at similar temperatures. The resulting m-D and A-D expressions are functions of temperature and cloud type (synoptic vs. anvil), and are in good agreement with m-D power laws developed from recent field studies considering the same temperature range (−60 °C 〈 T 〈 −20 °C).

Description: This study describes a satellite remote sensing method for directly retrieving the liquid water fraction in mixed phase clouds, and appears unique in this respect. The method uses MODIS split-window channels for retrieving the liquid fraction from cold clouds where the liquid water fraction is less than 50% of the total condensate. This makes use of the observation that clouds only containing ice exhibit effective 12-to-11 μm absorption optical thickness ratios (βeff) that are quasi-constant with retrieved cloud temperature T. This observation was made possible by using two CO2 channels to retrieve T and then using the 12 and 11 μm channels to retrieve emissivities and βeff. Thus for T 〈 −40 °C, βeff is constant, but for T 〉 −40 °C, βeff slowly increases due to the presence of liquid water, revealing mean liquid fractions of ~10% around −22 °C from tropical clouds identified as cirrus by the cloud mask. However, the uncertainties for these retrievals are large, and extensive in situ measurements are needed to refine and validate these retrievals. Such liquid levels are shown to reduce the cloud effective diameter De such that cloud optical thickness will increase by more than 50% for a given water path, relative to De corresponding to pure ice clouds. Such retrieval information is needed for validation of the cloud microphysics in climate models. Since low levels of liquid water can dominate cloud optical properties, tropical clouds between −25 and −20 °C may be susceptible to the first aerosol indirect effect.

Description: This study uses aircraft measurements of relative humidity and ice crystal size distribution collected in synoptic cirrus during the SPARTICUS (Small PARTicles In CirrUS) field campaign to evaluate and constrain ice cloud parameterizations in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5. The probability density function (PDF) of ice crystal number concentration (Ni) derived from high frequency (1 Hz) measurements features a strong dependence on ambient temperature. As temperature decreases from −35 °C to −62 °C, the peak in the PDF shifts from 10–20 L−1 to 200–1000 L−1, while the ice crystal number concentration shows a factor of 6–7 increase. Model simulations are performed with two different in-situ ice nucleation schemes. One of the schemes can reproduce a clear increase of Ni with decreasing temperature, by using either an observation based ice nuclei spectrum or a classical theory based spectrum with a relatively low (5–10%) maximum freezing ratio for dust aerosols. The simulation with the other scheme, which assumes a high maximum freezing ratio (100%), shows much weaker temperature dependence of Ni. Simulations are also performed to test empirical parameters related to water vapor deposition and the auto-conversion of ice crystals to snow. Results show that a value between 0.05 and 0.1 for the water vapor deposition coefficient and 250 μm for the critical ice crystal size can produce good agreements between model simulation and the SPARTICUS measurements in terms of ice crystal number concentration and effective radius. The climate impact of perturbing these parameters is also discussed.

Description: This study describes a satellite remote sensing method for directly retrieving the liquid water fraction in mixed phase clouds, and appears unique in this respect. The method uses MODIS split-window channels for retrieving the liquid fraction from cold clouds where the liquid water fraction is less than 50% of the total condensate. This makes use of the observation that clouds only containing ice exhibit effective 12-to-11 μm absorption optical thickness ratios (βeff) that are quasi-constant with retrieved cloud temperature T. This observation was made possible by using two CO2 channels to retrieve T and then using the 12 and 11 μm channels to retrieve emissivities and βeff. Thus for T 〈 −40 °C, βeff is constant, but for T 〉 −40 °C, βeff slowly increases due to the presence of liquid water, revealing mean liquid fractions of ~ 10% around −22 °C from tropical clouds identified as cirrus by the cloud mask. However, the uncertainties for these retrievals are large, and extensive in situ measurements are needed to refine and validate these retrievals. Such liquid levels are shown to reduce the cloud effective diameter De such that cloud optical thickness will increase by more than 50% for a given water path, relative to De corresponding to pure ice clouds. Such retrieval information is needed for validation of the cloud microphysics in climate models. Since low levels of liquid water can dominate cloud optical properties, tropical clouds between −25 and −20 °C may be susceptible to the first aerosol indirect effect.

Description: The cloud property known as "effective diameter" or "effective radius", which in essence is the cloud particle size distribution (PSD) volume at bulk density divided by its projected area, is used extensively in atmospheric radiation transfer, climate modeling and remote sensing. This derives from the assumption that PSD optical properties can be uniquely described in terms of their effective diameter, De, and their cloud water content (CWC), henceforth referred to as the De–CWC assumption. This study challenges this assumption, showing that while the De–CWC assumption appears generally valid for liquid water clouds, it appears less valid for ice clouds in regions where (1) absorption is not primarily a function of either the PSD ice water content (IWC) or the PSD projected area, and (2) where wave resonance (i.e. photon tunneling) contributes significantly to absorption. These two regions often strongly coincide at terrestrial wavelengths when De