Investigating the vertical extent and short-wave radiative effects of the ice phase in Arctic summertime low-level clouds ...

• Main Authors: Järvinen, Emma, Nehlert, Franziska, Xu, Guanglang, Waitz, Fritz, Mioche, Guillaume, Dupuy, Regis, Jourdan, Olivier, Schnaiter, Martin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union (EGU) 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5445/ir/1000161574; https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000161574

Low-level (cloud tops below 2 km) mixed-phase clouds are important in amplifying warming in the Arctic region through positive feedback in cloud fraction, water content and phase. In order to understand the cloud feedbacks in the Arctic region, good knowledge of the vertical distribution of the cloud water content, particle size and phase is required. Here we investigate the vertical extent of the cloud-phase and ice-phase optical properties in six case studies measured in the European Arctic during the ACLOUD campaign. Late spring- and summertime stratiform clouds were sampled in situ over pack ice, marginal sea ice zone and open-ocean surface, with cloud top temperatures varying between −15 and −1.5 ∘C. The results show that, although the liquid phase dominates the upper parts of the clouds, the ice phase was frequently observed in the lower parts down to cloud top temperatures as warm as −3.8 ∘C. In the studied vertical cloud profiles, the maximum of average liquid phase microphysical properties, droplet ...