The diurnal cycle of cloud profiles over land and ocean between 51°S and 51°N, seen by the CATS spaceborne lidar from the International Space Station

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Noël, Vincent, Chepfer, Hélène, Chiriaco, Marjolaine, Yorks, John
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'aérologie (LAERO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-École polytechnique (X)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), SPACE - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01754601; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01754601/document; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01754601/file/acp-18-9457-2018.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018

International audience We document, for the first time, how detailed ver-tical profiles of cloud fraction (CF) change diurnally be-tween 51◦S and 51◦N, by taking advantage of 15 monthsof measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport Sys-tem (CATS) lidar on the non-sun-synchronous InternationalSpace Station (ISS).Over the tropical ocean in summer, we find few highclouds during daytime. At night they become frequent over alarge altitude range (11–16 km between 22:00 and 04:00 LT).Over the summer tropical continents, but not over ocean,CATS observations reveal mid-level clouds (4–8 km abovesea level or a.s.l.) persisting all day long, with a weak di-urnal cycle (minimum at noon). Over the Southern Ocean,diurnal cycles appear for the omnipresent low-level clouds(minimum between noon and 15:00) and high-altitude clouds(minimum between 08:00 and 14:00). Both cycles are timeshifted, with high-altitude clouds following the changes inlow-altitude clouds by several hours. Over all continents atall latitudes during summer, the low-level clouds develop up-wards and reach a maximum occurrence at about 2.5 km a.s.l.in the early afternoon (around 14:00).Our work also shows that (1) the diurnal cycles of ver-tical profiles derived from CATS are consistent with thosefrom ground-based active sensors on a local scale, (2) thecloud profiles derived from CATS measurements at localtimes of 01:30 and 13:30 are consistent with those observedfrom CALIPSO at similar times, and (3) the diurnal cyclesof low and high cloud amounts (CAs) derived from CATS are in general in phase with those derived from geostationaryimagery but less pronounced. Finally, the diurnal variabilityof cloud profiles revealed by CATS strongly suggests thatCALIPSO measurements at 01:30 and 13:30 document thedaily extremes of the cloud fraction profiles over ocean andare more representative of daily averages over land, exceptat altitudes above 10 km where they capture part of the diur-nal variability. These findings are applicable to other instru-ments with local ...