Ice crystal number concentration estimates from lidar-radar satellite retrievals. Part 2: Controls on the ice crystal number concentration
File(s)acp-2018-21.pdf (1.08 MB)
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Author(s)
Gryspeerdt, Edward
Sourdeval, Odran
Quaas, Johannes
Delanoë, Julien
Kühne, Philipp
Type
Working Paper
Abstract
The ice crystal number concentration (Ni) is a keyproperty of ice clouds, both radiatively and microphysically.Due to sparse in situ measurements of ice cloud properties,the controls on theNihave remained difficult to determine.As more advanced treatments of ice clouds are included inglobal models, it is becoming increasingly necessary to de-velop strong observational constraints on the processes in-volved.This work uses the DARDAR-NiceNiretrieval describedin Part 1 to investigate the controls on theNiat a globalscale. The retrieved clouds are separated by type. The ef-fects of temperature, proxies for in-cloud updraft and aerosolconcentrations are investigated. Variations in the cloud topNi(Ni(top)) consistent with both homogeneous and hetero-geneous nucleation are observed along with differing rela-tionships between aerosol andNi(top)depending on the pre-vailing meteorological situation and aerosol type. Away fromthe cloud top, theNidisplays a different sensitivity to thesecontrolling factors, providing a possible explanation for thelowNisensitivity to temperature and ice nucleating particles(INP) observed in previous in situ studies.This satellite dataset provides a new way of investigat-ing the response of cloud properties to meteorological andaerosol controls. The results presented in this work increaseour confidence in the retrievedNiand will form the basis for further study into the processes influencing ice and mixedphase clouds.
Date Issued
2018-10-09
Citation
2018
ISSN
1680-7367
Publisher
Copernicus Publications
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Author(s) 2018. CC BY 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Subjects
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Publication Status
Published