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Climatology of cloud water content associated with different cloud types observed by A‐Train satellites
Author(s) -
Huang Lei,
Jiang Jonathan H.,
Wang Zhien,
Su Hui,
Deng Min,
Massie Steven
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/2014jd022779
Subject(s) - cloud top , liquid water content , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , northern hemisphere , precipitation , cloud fraction , latitude , international satellite cloud climatology project , liquid water path , lidar , cloud height , altitude (triangle) , cirrus , satellite , cloud cover , climatology , southern hemisphere , meteorology , cloud computing , geology , geography , remote sensing , physics , computer science , operating system , geometry , geodesy , mathematics , astronomy
Abstract This study investigates the climatology of vertical distributions of cloud liquid water content, ice water content, and cloud fraction (CFR) associated with eight different cloud types, by utilizing the combined CloudSat radar and Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations lidar measurements. The geographical and seasonal variations of these cloud properties for each cloud type are also analyzed. The cloud water content (CWC) of each cloud type is sorted by three parameters obtained from colocated satellite observations to investigate the relationships between large‐scale conditions and the vertical structure of clouds. Results show that different cloud types have different altitudes of CWC and CFR peaks, and the altitude of CFR peak does not always overlap with that of CWC peak. Each type of cloud shows a clear asymmetric pattern of spatial distribution between Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH). Stratocumulus and stratus clouds make the greatest contribution to the liquid water path, while the ice water path is mostly contributed by deep convective cloud over the tropics and nimbostratus over the middle and high latitudes. Over both middle and high latitudes, clouds have larger seasonal variation in the NH than in the SH. Over ocean, large CWCs of deep convective cloud, cirrus, and altostratus are above 7 km, and are associated with high convective available potential energy (>2000 J/kg), warm sea surface temperature (>303 K), and relatively high precipitation (>1 mm/h). Over land, most of the middle and high clouds have similar CWC distributions compared to those over ocean, but altocumulus and low clouds are quite different from those over ocean.