Sergey Y. Matrosov

Arctic Mixed-Phase Cloud Properties Derived from Surface-Based Sensors at SHEBA

Abstract Arctic mixed-phase cloud macro- and microphysical properties are derived from a year of radar, lidar, microwave radiometer, and radiosonde observations made as part of the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) Program in the Beaufort Sea in 1997–98. Mixed-phase clouds occurred 41% of the time and were most frequent in the spring and fall transition seasons. These clouds often consisted of a shallow, cloud-top liquid layer from which ice particles formed and fell, although deep, multilayered mixed-phase cloud scenes were also observed. On average, individual cloud layers persisted for 12 h, while some mixed-phase cloud systems lasted for many days. Ninety percent of the observed mixed-phase clouds were 0.5–3 km thick, had a cloud base of 0–2 km, and resided at a temperature of −25° to −5°C. Under the assumption that the relatively large ice crystals dominate the radar signal, ice properties were retrieved from these clouds using radar reflectivity measurements. The annual average ice par...

X-Band polarimetric radar measurements of rainfall

Abstract A combined polarimetric estimator for rainfall rate (R) retrievals from polarimetric radar measurements at X band is proposed. This estimator uses the horizontal polarization radar reflectivity Ze, differential reflectivity ZDR, and specific differential phase shift KDP, and it intrinsically accounts for changes in how drop oblateness increases with size. Because this estimator uses power measurements (i.e., Ze and ZDR), a procedure for correcting these measurements for effects of partial attenuation and differential attenuation using the differential phase measurement is suggested. An altitude correction for estimates of rainfall rates is also suggested. The proposed combined polarimetric estimator that uses KDP, ZDR, and Ze, an estimator that uses KDP alone for equilibrium drop shapes, and different Ze–R relations were applied to the 15 rain events observed with the NOAA X-band transportable polarimetric radar during the eight-week field campaign at the NASA Wallops Island facility in Virginia....

Thin Liquid Water Clouds: Their Importance and Our Challenge

Abstract Many of the clouds important to the Earths energy balance, from the Tropics to the Arctic, contain small amounts of liquid water. Longwave and shortwave radiative fluxes are very sensitive to small perturbations of the cloud liquid water path (LWP), when the LWP is small (i.e., < 100 g m−2; clouds with LWP less than this threshold will be referred to as “thin”). Thus, the radiative properties of these thin liquid water clouds must be well understood to capture them correctly in climate models. We review the importance of these thin clouds to the Earths energy balance, and explain the difficulties in observing them. In particular, because these clouds are thin, potentially mixed phase, and often broken (i.e., have large 3D variability), it is challenging to retrieve their microphysical properties accurately. We describe a retrieval algorithm intercomparison that was conducted to evaluate the issues involved. The intercomparison used data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) S...

Analysis of integrated cloud liquid and precipitable water vapor retrievals from microwave radiometers during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project

We investigated a variety of factors that influence the determination of precipitable water vapor (V) and integrated cloud liquid (L) by dual-channel microwave radiometers (MWRs). These factors include radiometric calibration; dry, water vapor, and liquid absorption coefficients; and physical versus statistical retrieval methods. We then applied the analysis to the MWR that was operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project. In the work reported here, MWR data taken from April 1 to July 31, 1998, were analyzed. Data acquired in situ did not always agree with the original MWR liquid retrievals, with MWR estimates at times being too large by perhaps a factor of 2. These differences led us to examine in detail several of the assumptions that go into V and L retrievals. The radiometer was carefully examined and found to be well calibrated with a 0.3 K RMS error. The predicted accuracy in the L retrievals, for this 0.3 K RMS radiometric error and a statistical retrieval, was 25 g m 2 RMS. This accuracy improves to 10%, if we use the improved knowledge of cloud temperature, as can be obtained using radiosondes and cloud radar/lidar measurements. We also studied the degree to which different clear air and cloud liquid models have an effect on V and L retrievals. The most significant changes from the original ARM retrievals were due to the dry opacity and the cloud liquid dielectric model. Although nothing was found in the original ARM data that was grossly incorrect, application of these models reduced the original ARM retrievals by roughly 20 to 30%. The change of clear-air absorption model from the original to a more recent one has little impact on V retrievals except when V is 0.5 cm.

Modeling Backscatter Properties of Snowfall at Millimeter Wavelengths

Ground-based vertically pointing and airborne/spaceborne nadir-pointing millimeter-wavelength radars are being increasingly used worldwide. Though such radars are primarily designed for cloud remote sensing, they can also be used for precipitation measurements including snowfall estimates. In this study, modeling of snowfall radar properties is performed for the common frequencies of millimeter-wavelength radars such as those used by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (Ka and W bands) and the CloudSat mission (W band). Realistic snowflake models including aggregates and single dendrite crystals were used. The model input included appropriate mass–size and terminal fall velocity–size relations and snowflake orientation and shape assumptions. It was shown that unlike in the Rayleigh scattering regime, which is often applicable for longer radar wavelengths, the spherical model does not generally satisfactorily describe scattering of larger snowflakes at millimeter wavelengths. This is especially true when, due to aerodynamic forcing, these snowflakes are oriented primarily with their major dimensions in the horizontal plane and the zenith/nadir radar pointing geometry is used. As a result of modeling using the experimental snowflake size distributions, radar reflectivity–liquid equivalent snowfall rates (Ze–S) relations are suggested for “dry” snowfalls that consist of mostly unrimed snowflakes containing negligible amounts of liquid water. Owing to uncertainties in the model assumptions, these relations, which are derived for the common Ka- and W-band radar frequencies, have significant variability in their coefficients that can exceed a factor of 2 or so. Modeling snowfall attenuation suggests that the attenuation effects in “dry” snowfall can be neglected at the Ka band for most practical cases, while at the W band attenuation may need to be accounted for in heavier snowfalls observed at longer ranges.

Radar and Radiation Properties of Ice Clouds

Abstract The authors derive relations of the equivalent radar reflectivity Ze and extinction coefficient α of ice clouds and confirm the theory by in situ aircraft observations during the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment. Equivalent radar reflectivity Ze is a function of ice water content W and a moment of the size distribution such as the median volume diameter D0. Stratification of the data by D0 provides a set of W − Ze relations from which one may deduce the dependence of particle density on size. This relation is close to that of Brown and Francis and provides confidence in the methodology of estimating particle size and mass. The authors find that there is no universal W − Ze relation, due both to large scatter and systematic shifts in particle size from day to day and cloud to cloud. These variations manifest the normal changes in ice crystal growth. The result is that, with the exception of temperatures less than −40°C, temperature cannot be used to relia...

An Arctic Springtime Mixed-Phase Cloudy Boundary Layer Observed during SHEBA

Abstract The microphysical characteristics, radiative impact, and life cycle of a long-lived, surface-based mixed-layer, mixed-phase cloud with an average temperature of approximately −20°C are presented and discussed. The cloud was observed during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic experiment (SHEBA) from 1 to 10 May 1998. Vertically resolved properties of the liquid and ice phases are retrieved using surface-based remote sensors, utilize the adiabatic assumption for the liquid component, and are aided by and validated with aircraft measurements from 4 and 7 May. The cloud radar ice microphysical retrievals, originally developed for all-ice clouds, compare well with aircraft measurements despite the presence of much greater liquid water contents than ice water contents. The retrieved time-mean liquid cloud optical depth of 10.1 ± 7.8 far surpasses the mean ice cloud optical depth of 0.2, so that the liquid phase is primarily responsible for the cloud’s radiative (flux) impact. The ice phase, in turn, ...

Profiling Cloud Ice Mass and Particle Characteristic Size from Doppler Radar Measurements

A remote sensing method is proposed for the retrievals of vertical profiles of ice cloud microphysical parameters from ground-based measurements of radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity with a vertically pointed cloud radar. This method relates time-averaged Doppler velocities (which are used as a proxy for the reflectivity-weighted particle fall velocities) to particle characteristic sizes such as median or mean. With estimated profiles of particle characteristic size, profiles of cloud ice water content (IWC) are then calculated using reflectivity measurements. The method accounts for the intrinsic correlation between particle sizes and parameters of the fall velocity‐size relations. It also accounts for changes of particle bulk density with size. The range of applicability of this method encompasses ice-phase clouds and also mixed-phase clouds that contain liquid drops, which are small compared to ice particles, so the radar signals are dominated by these larger particles. It is, however, limited to the observational situations without strong up- and downdrafts, so the residual of mean vertical air motions is small enough compared to the reflectivity-weighted cloud particle fall velocities. The Doppler-velocity reflectivity method was applied to the data obtained with an 8.6-mm wavelength radar when observing Arctic clouds. Typical retrieval uncertainties are about 35%‐40% for particle characteristic size and 60%‐70% for IWC, though in some cases IWC uncertainties can be as high as factor of 2 (i.e., 250%, 1100%). Comparisons with in situ data for one observational case yielded 25% and 55% differences in retrieved and in situ estimates of characteristic size and IWC, respectively. The results of the microphysical retrievals obtained from the remote sensing method developed here were compared with data obtained from the multisensor technique that utilizes combined radar‐ IR radiometer measurements. For pure ice-phase layers unobstructed by liquid clouds (i.e., conditions where the multisensor approach is applicable), the relative standard deviations between the results of both remote sensing approaches were about 27% for mean particle size and 38% for IWC, with relative biases of only 5% and 20%, respectively.

Arctic cloud microphysics retrievals from surface-based remote sensors at SHEBA

Abstract An operational suite of ground-based, remote sensing retrievals for producing cloud microphysical properties is described, assessed, and applied to 1 yr of observations in the Arctic. All measurements were made in support of the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) program and First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment (FIRE) Arctic Clouds Experiment (ACE) in 1997–98. Retrieval techniques and cloud-type classifications are based on measurements from a vertically pointing 35-GHz Doppler radar, microwave and infrared radiometers, and radiosondes. The retrieval methods are assessed using aircraft in situ measurements from a limited set of case studies and by intercomparison of multiple retrievals for the same parameters. In all-liquid clouds, retrieved droplet effective radii Re have an uncertainty of up to 32% and liquid water contents (LWC) have an uncertainty of 49%–72%. In all-ice clouds, ice particle mean sizes Dmean can be retrieved with an uncertainty of ...

The Utility of X-Band Polarimetric Radar for Quantitative Estimates of Rainfall Parameters

Abstract The utility of X-band polarimetric radar for quantitative retrievals of rainfall parameters is analyzed using observations collected along the U.S. west coast near the mouth of the Russian River during the Hydrometeorological Testbed project conducted by NOAA’s Environmental Technology and National Severe Storms Laboratories in December 2003 through March 2004. It is demonstrated that the rain attenuation effects in measurements of reflectivity (Ze) and differential attenuation effects in measurements of differential reflectivity (ZDR) can be efficiently corrected in near–real time using differential phase shift data. A scheme for correcting gaseous attenuation effects that are important at longer ranges is introduced. The use of polarimetric rainfall estimators that utilize specific differential phase and differential reflectivity data often provides results that are superior to estimators that use fixed reflectivity-based relations, even if these relations were derived from the ensemble of drop...