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Profiles of MBL Cloud and Drizzle Microphysical Properties Retrieved From Ground‐Based Observations and Validated by Aircraft In Situ Measurements Over the Azores
Author(s) -
Wu Peng,
Dong Xiquan,
Xi Baike,
Tian Jingjing,
Ward Dale M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2019jd032205
Subject(s) - drizzle , environmental science , aerosol , cloud top , liquid water content , ceilometer , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , in situ , cloud computing , effective radius , cloud physics , physics , precipitation , astrophysics , computer science , galaxy , operating system
The profiles of marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud and drizzle microphysical properties are important for studying the cloud‐to‐rain conversion and growth processes in MBL clouds. However, it is challenging to simultaneously retrieve both cloud and drizzle microphysical properties within an MBL cloud layer using ground‐based observations. In this study, methods were developed to first decompose drizzle and cloud reflectivity in MBL clouds from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement cloud radar reflectivity measurements and then simultaneously retrieve cloud and drizzle microphysical properties during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE‐ENA) campaign. These retrieved microphysical properties, such as cloud and drizzle particle size ( r c and r m,d ), their number concentration ( N c and N d ) and liquid water content ( LWC c and LWC d ), have been validated by aircraft in situ measurements during ACE‐ENA (~158 hr of aircraft data). The mean surface retrieved (in situ measured) r c , N c , and LWC c are 10.9 μm (11.8 μm), 70 cm −3 (60 cm −3 ), and 0.21 g m −3 (0.22 g m −3 ), respectively. For drizzle microphysical properties, the retrieved (in situ measured) r d , N d , and LWC d are 44.9 μm (45.1 μm), 0.07 cm −3 (0.08 cm −3 ), and 0.052 g m −3 (0.066 g m −3 ), respectively. Treating the aircraft in situ measurements as truth, the estimated median retrieval errors are ~15% for r c , ~35% for N c , ~30% for LWC c and r d , and ~50% for N d and LWC d . The findings from this study will provide insightful information for improving our understanding of warm rain processes, as well as for improving model simulations. More studies are required over other climatic regions.