Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO
The lidar and radar profiling capabilities of the CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder (CALIPSO) satellites provide opportunities to improve the characterization of cloud properties. An Arctic cloud climatology based on their observations may be fundamentally different from earli...
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ftunivnebraskali:oai:digitalcommons.unl.edu:usdeptcommercepub-1343 2024-09-30T14:29:13+00:00 Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO Liu, Yinghui Key, Jeffrey R. Ackerman, Steven A. Mace, Gerald G. Zhang, Qiuqing 2012-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/344 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1343/viewcontent/Key_RSE_2012_Arctic_cloud.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/344 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1343/viewcontent/Key_RSE_2012_Arctic_cloud.pdf United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications Arctic Cloud Remote sensing CloudSat CALIPSO Environmental Sciences text 2012 ftunivnebraskali 2024-09-02T07:48:20Z The lidar and radar profiling capabilities of the CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder (CALIPSO) satellites provide opportunities to improve the characterization of cloud properties. An Arctic cloud climatology based on their observations may be fundamentally different from earlier Arctic cloud climatologies based on passive satellite observations, which have limited contrast between the cloud and underlying surface. Specifically, the Radar–Lidar Geometrical Profile product (RL-GEOPROF) provides cloud vertical profiles fromthe combination of active lidar and radar. Based on this data product for the period July 2006 to March 2011, this paper presents a new cloud macrophysical property characteristic analysis for the Arctic, including cloud occurrence fraction (COF), vertical distributions, and probability density functions (PDF) of cloud base and top heights. Seasonal mean COF shows maximum values in autumn, minimum values in winter, and moderate values in spring and summer; this seasonality ismore prominent over the Arctic Ocean on the Pacific side. Themean ratios of multi-layer cloud to total cloud over the ocean and land are between 24% and 28%. Low-level COFs are higher over ocean than over land. The ratio of low-level cloud to total cloud is also higher over ocean. Middle-level and high-level COFs are smaller over ocean than over land except in summer, and the ratios of middle-level and highlevel clouds to total cloud are also smaller over ocean. Over the central Arctic Ocean, PDFs of cloud top height and cloud bottomheight show(1) two cloud top height PDF peaks, one for cloud top heights lower than 1200 mand another between 7 and 9 km; and (2) high frequency for cloud base below 1000 m with the majority of cloud base heights lower than 2000 m. Text Arctic Arctic Ocean University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnebraskali |
language |
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topic |
Arctic Cloud Remote sensing CloudSat CALIPSO Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Arctic Cloud Remote sensing CloudSat CALIPSO Environmental Sciences Liu, Yinghui Key, Jeffrey R. Ackerman, Steven A. Mace, Gerald G. Zhang, Qiuqing Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
topic_facet |
Arctic Cloud Remote sensing CloudSat CALIPSO Environmental Sciences |
description |
The lidar and radar profiling capabilities of the CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder (CALIPSO) satellites provide opportunities to improve the characterization of cloud properties. An Arctic cloud climatology based on their observations may be fundamentally different from earlier Arctic cloud climatologies based on passive satellite observations, which have limited contrast between the cloud and underlying surface. Specifically, the Radar–Lidar Geometrical Profile product (RL-GEOPROF) provides cloud vertical profiles fromthe combination of active lidar and radar. Based on this data product for the period July 2006 to March 2011, this paper presents a new cloud macrophysical property characteristic analysis for the Arctic, including cloud occurrence fraction (COF), vertical distributions, and probability density functions (PDF) of cloud base and top heights. Seasonal mean COF shows maximum values in autumn, minimum values in winter, and moderate values in spring and summer; this seasonality ismore prominent over the Arctic Ocean on the Pacific side. Themean ratios of multi-layer cloud to total cloud over the ocean and land are between 24% and 28%. Low-level COFs are higher over ocean than over land. The ratio of low-level cloud to total cloud is also higher over ocean. Middle-level and high-level COFs are smaller over ocean than over land except in summer, and the ratios of middle-level and highlevel clouds to total cloud are also smaller over ocean. Over the central Arctic Ocean, PDFs of cloud top height and cloud bottomheight show(1) two cloud top height PDF peaks, one for cloud top heights lower than 1200 mand another between 7 and 9 km; and (2) high frequency for cloud base below 1000 m with the majority of cloud base heights lower than 2000 m. |
format |
Text |
author |
Liu, Yinghui Key, Jeffrey R. Ackerman, Steven A. Mace, Gerald G. Zhang, Qiuqing |
author_facet |
Liu, Yinghui Key, Jeffrey R. Ackerman, Steven A. Mace, Gerald G. Zhang, Qiuqing |
author_sort |
Liu, Yinghui |
title |
Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
title_short |
Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
title_full |
Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
title_fullStr |
Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from CloudSat and CALIPSO |
title_sort |
arctic cloud macrophysical characteristics from cloudsat and calipso |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/344 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1343/viewcontent/Key_RSE_2012_Arctic_cloud.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
op_source |
United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdeptcommercepub/344 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/usdeptcommercepub/article/1343/viewcontent/Key_RSE_2012_Arctic_cloud.pdf |
_version_ |
1811634598589759488 |