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
We document, for the first time, how detailed vertical profiles of cloud fraction (CF) change diurnally between 51° S and 51° N, by taking advantage of 15 months of measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar on the non-sun-synchronous International Space Station (ISS). Over th...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 https://doaj.org/article/6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 2023-05-15T18:26:01+02:00 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 V. Noel H. Chepfer M. Chiriaco J. Yorks 2018-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 https://doaj.org/article/6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/9457/2018/acp-18-9457-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 18, Pp 9457-9473 (2018) Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 2022-12-31T02:07:02Z We document, for the first time, how detailed vertical profiles of cloud fraction (CF) change diurnally between 51° S and 51° N, by taking advantage of 15 months of measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar on the non-sun-synchronous International Space Station (ISS). Over the tropical ocean in summer, we find few high clouds during daytime. At night they become frequent over a large 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 above sea level or a.s.l.) persisting all day long, with a weak diurnal 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 time shifted, with high-altitude clouds following the changes in low-altitude clouds by several hours. Over all continents at all latitudes during summer, the low-level clouds develop upwards 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 vertical profiles derived from CATS are consistent with those from ground-based active sensors on a local scale, (2) the cloud profiles derived from CATS measurements at local times of 01:30 and 13:30 are consistent with those observed from CALIPSO at similar times, and (3) the diurnal cycles of low and high cloud amounts (CAs) derived from CATS are in general in phase with those derived from geostationary imagery but less pronounced. Finally, the diurnal variability of cloud profiles revealed by CATS strongly suggests that CALIPSO measurements at 01:30 and 13:30 document the daily extremes of the cloud fraction profiles over ocean and are more representative of daily averages over land, except at altitudes above 10 km where they capture part of the diurnal variability. These findings are applicable to other instruments with local ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Southern Ocean Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 18 13 9457 9473 |
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English |
topic |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
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Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 V. Noel H. Chepfer M. Chiriaco J. Yorks 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 |
topic_facet |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
description |
We document, for the first time, how detailed vertical profiles of cloud fraction (CF) change diurnally between 51° S and 51° N, by taking advantage of 15 months of measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar on the non-sun-synchronous International Space Station (ISS). Over the tropical ocean in summer, we find few high clouds during daytime. At night they become frequent over a large 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 above sea level or a.s.l.) persisting all day long, with a weak diurnal 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 time shifted, with high-altitude clouds following the changes in low-altitude clouds by several hours. Over all continents at all latitudes during summer, the low-level clouds develop upwards 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 vertical profiles derived from CATS are consistent with those from ground-based active sensors on a local scale, (2) the cloud profiles derived from CATS measurements at local times of 01:30 and 13:30 are consistent with those observed from CALIPSO at similar times, and (3) the diurnal cycles of low and high cloud amounts (CAs) derived from CATS are in general in phase with those derived from geostationary imagery but less pronounced. Finally, the diurnal variability of cloud profiles revealed by CATS strongly suggests that CALIPSO measurements at 01:30 and 13:30 document the daily extremes of the cloud fraction profiles over ocean and are more representative of daily averages over land, except at altitudes above 10 km where they capture part of the diurnal variability. These findings are applicable to other instruments with local ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
V. Noel H. Chepfer M. Chiriaco J. Yorks |
author_facet |
V. Noel H. Chepfer M. Chiriaco J. Yorks |
author_sort |
V. Noel |
title |
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 |
title_short |
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 |
title_full |
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 |
title_fullStr |
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 |
title_full_unstemmed |
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 |
title_sort |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 https://doaj.org/article/6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 18, Pp 9457-9473 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/9457/2018/acp-18-9457-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/6a950d1a83cb457dba073dcf1928a8c3 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9457-2018 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
13 |
container_start_page |
9457 |
op_container_end_page |
9473 |
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1766207800322555904 |