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A new way to measure cirrus cloud ice water content by using ice Raman scatter with Raman lidar
Author(s) -
Wang Zhien,
Whiteman David N.,
Demoz Belay B.,
Veselovskii Igor
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl020004
Subject(s) - cirrus , raman spectroscopy , lidar , remote sensing , environmental science , radiative transfer , ice crystals , ice cloud , cloud computing , raman scattering , materials science , meteorology , physics , optics , computer science , geology , operating system
To improve our understanding of cirrus cloud radiative impact on the current and future climate, improved knowledge of cirrus cloud microphysical properties is needed. However, long‐term studies of the problem indicate that accurate cirrus cloud measurements are challenging. This is true for both, remote sensing as well as in situ sampling. This study presents a new method to remotely sense cirrus microphysical properties utilizing the Raman scattered intensities from ice crystals using a Raman lidar. Since the intensity of Raman scattering is fundamentally proportional to the number of molecules involved, this method provides a more direct way of measuring the ice water content compared with other schemes. Case studies presented here show that this method has the potential to provide simultaneous measurements of many of the essential information of cirrus microphysical properties.