Olivier Jourdan

Seasonal Characteristics of the Physicochemical Properties of North Atlantic Marine Atmospheric Aerosols

The aerosol size distribution modal diameters show seasonal variations, 0.031 mm in winter and 0.049 mm in summer for the Aitken mode and 0.103 mm in winter and 0.177 mm in summer for the accumulation mode. The accumulation mode mass also showed a seasonal variation, minimum in winter and maximum in summer. A supermicron sized particle mode was found at 2 mm for all seasons showing 30% higher mass concentration during winter than summer resulting from higher wind speed conditions. Chemical analysis showed that the concentration of sea salt has a seasonal pattern, minimum in summer and maximum in winter because of a dependency of sea-salt load on wind speeds. By contrast, the non-sea-salt (nss) sulphate concentration in fine mode particles exhibited lower values during winter and higher values during midsummer. The water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and total carbon (TC) analysis also showed a distinctive seasonal pattern. The WSOC concentration during the high biological activity period peaked at 0.2 mgC m A3 , while it was lower than 0.05 mgC m A3 during the low biological activity period. The aerosol light scattering coefficient showed a minimum value of 5.5 Mm A1 in August and a maximum of 21 Mm A1 in February. This seasonal variation was due to the higher contribution of sea salt in the MBL during North Atlantic winter. By contrast, aerosols during late spring and summer exhibited larger angstrom parameters than winter, indicating a large contribution of the biogenically driven fine or accumulation modes. Seasonal characteristics of North Atlantic marine aerosols suggest an important link between marine aerosols and biological activity through primary production of marine aerosols.

Comparison of Airborne In Situ, Airborne Radar–Lidar, and Spaceborne Radar–Lidar Retrievals of Polar Ice Cloud Properties Sampled during the POLARCAT Campaign

AbstractThis study illustrates the high potential of RALI, the French airborne radar–lidar instrument, for studying cloud processes and evaluating satellite products when satellite overpasses are available. For an Arctic nimbostratus ice cloud collected on 1 April 2008 during the Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport (POLARCAT) campaign, the capability of this synergistic instrument to retrieve cloud properties and to characterize the cloud phase at scales smaller than a kilometer, which is crucial for cloud process analysis, is demonstrated. A variational approach, which combines radar and lidar, is used to retrieve the ice-water content (IWC), extinction, and effective radius. The combination of radar and lidar is shown to provide better retrievals than do stand-alone methods and, in general, the radar overestimates and the lidar underestimates IWC. As the sampled ice cloud was simultaneously observed by CloudSat and C...

Using in-situ airborne measurements to evaluate three cloud phase products derived from CALIPSO

We compare the cloud detection and cloud phase determination of three independent climatologies based on Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) to airborne in situ measurements. Our analysis of the cloud detection shows that the differences between the satellite and in situ measurements mainly arise from three factors. First, averaging CALIPSO Level l data along track before cloud detection increases the estimate of high- and low-level cloud fractions. Second, the vertical averaging of Level 1 data before cloud detection tends to artificially increase the cloud vertical extent. Third, the differences in classification of fully attenuated pixels among the CALIPSO climatologies lead to differences in the low-level Arctic cloud fractions. In another section, we compare the cloudy pixels detected by colocated in situ and satellite observations to study the cloud phase determination. At midlatitudes, retrievals of homogeneous high ice clouds by CALIPSO data sets are very robust (more than 94.6% of agreement with in situ). In the Arctic, where the cloud phase vertical variability is larger within a 480 m pixel, all climatologies show disagreements with the in situ measurements and CALIPSO-General Circulation Models-Oriented Cloud Product (GOCCP) report significant undefined-phase clouds, which likely correspond to mixed-phase clouds. In all CALIPSO products, the phase determination is dominated by the cloud top phase. Finally, we use global statistics to demonstrate that main differences between the CALIPSO cloud phase products stem from the cloud detection (horizontal averaging, fully attenuated pixels) rather than the cloud phase determination procedures.

Assessment of cloud optical parameters in the solar region: Retrievals from airborne measurements of scattering phase functions

A data set of approximately 60,000 airborne measurements of angular scattering coefficients was used to reproduce a representative set of both microphysical parameters and single light-scattering characteristics (angular scattering coefficient, asymmetry parameter, single-scattering albedo, and extinction coefficient) for three types of clouds. The measurements were limited to a wavelength of 0.8 mm and to 28 scattering angles near uniformly positioned from 15° to 155°. Microphysical and optical characteristics were computed at wavelengths of 0.8, 1.6, and 3.7 mm, which are needed for the direct and inverse modeling of radiative transfer. The estimation of these characteristics is achieved through cloud microphysical parameter retrievals, taking into account the variation of water droplet and ice crystal size as well as cloud phase composition. We present both average values and possible variability of microphysical and single-scattering characteristics for three types of clouds with respect to their particle phase composition (i.e., water droplets, mixed phase, and ice crystals in cloud). The variations are presented separately due to both random instrumental errors of optical measurements and possible changes in the microphysical parameters within a separated specific cloud category. The microphysical parameter retrievals are validated by comparison with collocated direct particle size distribution measurements. Additionally, the estimated single light-scattering characteristics are in reasonable agreement with those available from the literature.

In Situ Observation of Cirrus Scattering Phase Functions with 22° and 46° Halos: Cloud Field Study on 19 February 1998

Abstract Observations of halos and related phenomena due to ice crystals are commonly reported from ground observations and presented in the literature. Nevertheless, ice crystal characteristics have only been poorly documented from in situ measurements performed in halo-producing cirrus with simultaneous observations of optical phenomena. Using the Polar Nephelometer, a new instrument for in situ measuring of the scattering phase function of cloud droplets and ice particles, 22° and 46° halo features have been evidenced during a cirrus uncinus cloud case study between −30°C and −38°C. Simultaneous microphysical measurements were made with a 2D-C probe manufactured by Particle Measuring Systems Inc. (PMS). The results show that ice crystal properties derived from 2D-C measurements do not present substantial differences when comparing cirrus cloud samples with and without halos. Consequently, the cloud scattering properties appear to be dominated by small ice particles (smaller than about 100 μm), which ar...

Statistical analysis of cloud light scattering and microphysical properties obtained from airborne measurements

A new statistical analysis of the in situ scattering phase function measurements performed by the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Physiques airborne polar nephelometer is implemented. A principal component analysis along with neural networks leads to the classification of a large data set into three typical averaged scattering phase functions. The cloud classification in terms of particle phase composition (water droplets, mixed-phase, and ice crystals) is done by a neural network and is validated by direct Particle Measuring Systems, Inc., probe measurements. The results show that the measured scattering phase functions carry enough information to accurately retrieve component composition and particle size distributions. For each classified cloud, we support the statement by application of an inversion method using a physical model of light scattering to the average scattering phase function. Furthermore, the retrievals are compared with size composition obtained by independent direct measurements.

Quasi-Spherical Ice in Convective Clouds

AbstractHomogeneous freezing of supercooled droplets occurs in convective systems in low and midlatitudes. This droplet-freezing process leads to the formation of a large amount of small ice particles, so-called frozen droplets, that are transported to the upper parts of anvil outflows, where they can influence the cloud radiative properties. However, the detailed microphysics and, thus, the scattering properties of these small ice particles are highly uncertain. Here, the link between the microphysical and optical properties of frozen droplets is investigated in cloud chamber experiments, where the frozen droplets were formed, grown, and sublimated under controlled conditions. It was found that frozen droplets developed a high degree of small-scale complexity after their initial formation and subsequent growth. During sublimation, the small-scale complexity disappeared, releasing a smooth and near-spherical ice particle. Angular light scattering and depolarization measurements confirmed that these sublim...

The cloud phase discrimination from a satellite

A new technique to identify mixed-phase clouds but also clouds with supercooled water droplets using satellite measurements is proposed. The technique is based on measurements of the backscattered solar light at wavelengths 1.55 and 1.67 /spl mu/m in combination with cloud brightness temperature measurements at 12 /spl mu/m. For the first time, the concept of the phase index-temperature correlation plot (the P-T diagram) is introduced in the cloud remote sensing. Retrievals of cloud temperature and cloud phase index are performed using data from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and Scaning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) both onboard the Envisat platform.

Assessment of Cirrus Cloud Optical and Microphysical Data Reliability by Applying Statistical Procedures

A methodology of employing statistical procedures, specifically the principal component analysis (PCA) technique, to assess cirrus cloud data reliability is described. The approach is demonstrated by an example of a study of optical and microphysical characteristics measured during two campaigns performed at midlatitudes in the pristine Southern (SH) and polluted Northern (NH) Hemispheres within the international INCA project (Interhemispheric Differences in Cirrus Cloud Properties from Anthropogenic Emissions). The datasets were obtained by using state-of-the-art airborne instruments including the polar nephelometer and PMS particle size spectrometers for the ice-particle characterization. The approach is applied to both the measured angular scattering intensities and the ice-particle size distributions. It is shown that the PCA technique allows for impartial elimination of nonreliable channels of instruments. Furthermore, this technique is efficient in a study if the dataset is statistically homogeneous, and provides the possibility of removing specific records corresponding to distinguishing statistical ensembles. The results, expressed in terms of significant components and corresponding eigenvalues, show that the Southern and Northern Hemisphere datasets are in good agreement and they can be considered as statistically representative of the sampled cirrus. Furthermore, the frequency distributions of the cirrus cloud microphysical and optical properties can be regarded as arbitrary positive quantities, which are lognormally distributed. The validation of the measurements is provided by intercomparison of parameters estimated from different and independent techniques. The statistical relationships between quantities derived from angular scattering intensities and from ice-particle distributions as well as the similarity of the results obtained for the Southern and Northern Hemisphere cases serve as proof of the reliability of the measured cloud properties.

Calibration of SCIAMACHY Using AATSR Top-of-Atmosphere Reflectance Over a Hurricane

This letter investigates the synergy between the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) onboard the ENVISAT platform for reflectance calibration purposes. This calibration study was mainly performed over a portion of a hurricane corresponding to fully cloudy SCIAMACHY and AATSR pixels. Results show that SCIAMACHY underestimates the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance by up to 23% (at 870 nm) as compared to AATSR for a nadir viewing geometry. Specifically, considering AATSR calibration as accurate, which is confirmed by comparison with the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, the SCIAMACHY TOA reflectances should be multiplied by 1.21, 1.19, 1.23, and 1.10 for wavelengths at 550, 670, 870, and 1600 nm, respectively, ahead of satellite retrieval schemes based on the measurements of TOA reflectance