Emiliano Orlandi

Absorption Properties of Supercooled Liquid Water between 31 and 225 GHz: Evaluation of Absorption Models Using Ground-Based Observations

Microwave radiometers (MWR) are commonly used to quantify the amount of supercooled liquid water (SLW) in clouds; however, the accuracy of the SLW retrievals is limited by the poor knowledge of the SLW dielectric properties at microwave frequencies. Six liquid water permittivity models were compared with ground-based MWR observations between 31 and 225GHz from sites in Greenland, the German Alps, and a low-mountain site; average cloud temperatures of observed thin cloud layers range from 08 to 2338C. A recently published method to derive ratios of liquid water opacity from different frequencies was employed in this analysis. These ratios are independent of liquid water path and equal to the ratio of aL at those frequencies that can be directly compared with the permittivity model predictions. The observed opacity ratios from all sites show highly consistent results that are generally within the range of model predictions; however, none of the models are able to approximate the observations over the entire frequency and temperature range. Findings in earlier published studies were used to select one specific model as a reference model for aL at 90GHz; together with the observed opacity ratios, the temperature dependence of aL at 31.4, 52.28, 150, and 225GHz was derived. The results reveal that two models fit the opacity ratio data better than the other four models, with one of the two models fitting the data better for frequencies below 90GHz and the other for higher frequencies. These findings are relevant for SLW retrievals and radiative transfer in the 31–225-GHz frequency region.

Microwave hyperspectral measurements for temperature and humidity atmospheric profiling from satellite: The clear‐sky case

This study investigates the benefits of a satellite HYperspectral Microwave Sensor (HYMS) for the retrieval of atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, in the context of numerical weather prediction (NWP). In the infrared, hyperspectral instruments have already improved the accuracy of NWP forecasts. Microwave instruments so far only provide observations for a limited number of carefully selected channels. An information content analysis is conducted here to assess the impact of hyperspectral microwave measurements on the retrieval of temperature and water vapor profiles under clear-sky conditions. It uses radiative transfer simulations over a large variety of atmospheric situations. It accounts for realistic observation (instrument and radiative transfer) noise and for a priori information assumptions compatible with NWP practices. The estimated retrieval performance of the HYMS instrument is compared to those of the microwave instruments to be deployed on board the future generation of European operational meteorological satellites (MetOp-SG). The results confirm the positive impact of a HYMS instrument on the atmospheric profiling capabilities compared to MetOp-SG. Temperature retrieval uncertainty, compared to a priori information, is reduced by 2 to 10%, depending on the atmospheric height, and improvement rates are much higher than what will be obtained with MetOp-SG. For humidity sounding these improvements can reach 30%, a significant benefit as compared to MetOp-SG results especially below 250 hPa. The results are not very sensitive to the instrument noise, under our assumptions. The main impact provided by the hyperspectral information originates from the higher resolution in the O2 band around 60 GHz. The results are presented over ocean at nadir, but similar conclusions are obtained for other incidence angles and over land. Key Points A hyperspectral MW instrument could improve temperature & humidity retrieval compared to MetOp-SG The main impact from HYMS comes from higher resolution in the O2 band around 60 GHz Hyperspectral information is not really sensitive to instrument noise.

Microwave Passive Ground-Based Retrievals of Cloud and Rain Liquid Water Path in Drizzling Clouds: Challenges and Possibilities

Satellite and ground-based microwave radiometers are routinely used for the retrieval of liquid water path (LWP) under all atmospheric conditions. The retrieval of water vapor and LWP from ground-based radiometers during rain has proved to be a difficult challenge for two principal reasons: the inadequacy of the nonscattering approximation in precipitating clouds and the deposition of rain drops on the instrument’s radome. In this paper, we combine model computations and real ground-based, zenith-viewing passive microwave radiometer brightness temperature measurements to investigate how total, cloud, and rain LWP retrievals are affected by assumptions on the cloud drop size distribution (DSD) and under which conditions a nonscattering approximation can be considered reasonably accurate. Results show that until the drop effective diameter is larger than ~200

Large‐eddy simulations over Germany using ICON: a comprehensive evaluation

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Combining ground‐based with satellite‐based measurements in the atmospheric state retrieval: Assessment of the information content

, a nonscattering approximation yields results that are still accurate at frequencies less than 90 GHz. For larger drop sizes, it is shown that higher microwave frequencies contain useful information that can be used to separate cloud and rain LWP provided that the vertical distribution of hydrometeors, as well as the DSD, is reasonably known. The choice of the DSD parameters becomes important to ensure retrievals that are consistent with the measurements. A physical retrieval is tested on a synthetic data set and is then used to retrieve total, cloud, and rain LWP from radiometric measurements during two drizzling cases at the atmospheric radiation measurement Eastern North Atlantic site.