Microphysical and radiative characterization of a subvisible midlevel Arctic ice cloud by airborne observations-a case study

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Lampert, A, Ehrlich, A, Dörnbrack, A., Jourdan, O., Gayet, J.-F, Mioche, G., Shcherbakov, V., Ritter, C., Wendisch, M.
• Other Authors: DLR Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre = DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IPA), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling (DLR), Laboratoire de météorologie physique (LaMP), Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Leibniz-Institut für Troposphärenforschung (TROPOS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2009
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; albedo; Arctic; Svalbard
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01893486; https://hal.science/hal-01893486/document; https://hal.science/hal-01893486/file/Lampertetalacp-9-2647-2009.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-2647-2009

International audience During the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR) campaign, which was conducted in March and April 2007, an optically thin ice cloud was observed south of Svalbard at around 3 km altitude. The microphysical and radiative properties of this particular sub-visible midlevel cloud were investigated with complementary remote sensing and in situ instruments. Collocated airborne lidar remote sensing and spectral solar radiation measurements were performed at a flight altitude of 2300 m below the cloud base. Under almost stationary atmospheric conditions, the same subvisible midlevel cloud was probed with various in situ sensors roughly 30 min later. From individual ice crystal samples detected with the Cloud Particle Imager and the ensemble of particles measured with the Polar Nephelometer, microphysical properties were retrieved with a bi-modal inversion algorithm. The best agreement with the measurements was obtained for small ice spheres and deeply rough hexagonal ice crystals. Furthermore , the single-scattering albedo, the scattering phase function as well as the volume extinction coefficient and the effective diameter of the crystal population were determined. A lidar ratio of 21(±6) sr was deduced by three independent methods. These parameters in conjunction with the cloud optical thickness obtained from the lidar measurements were used to compute spectral and broadband radiances and ir-radiances with a radiative transfer code. The simulated results agreed with the observed spectral downwelling radiance Correspondence to: A. Lampert ([e-mail]) within the range given by the measurement uncertainty. Furthermore , the broadband radiative simulations estimated a net (solar plus thermal infrared) radiative forcing of the sub-visible midlevel ice cloud of −0.4 W m −2 (−3.2 W m −2 in the solar and +2.8 W m −2 in the thermal infrared wavelength range).