Wolfgang Armbruster

Improved method of exponential sum fitting of transmissions to describe the absorption of atmospheric gases

For climate modeling and atmospheric research, such as investigations of global climate change, remote sensing of cloud properties, or the missing absorption problem in clouds, it is most important to describe adequately the absorption of radiation by atmospheric gases. An improved method for the exponential sum fitting of transmissions (ESPT) is developed to approximate this absorption accurately. Exponentials are estimated separately for any number of atmospheric-model layers, considering the pressure and temperature dependence of the absorption lines directly. As long as the error of the fit exceeds a limit of tolerance, the number of considered exponential terms is successively increased. The accuracy of the method presented yields a root-mean-square error of less than 0.03% for any atmospheric-model layer, whereas the commonly used one-layer techniques gain errors of up to 3% in the transmission functions for the upper layers. The commonly used ESPT methods consider only one atmospheric layer and introduce the pressure and temperature effects for the other model layers afterward.

Microphysical and radiative properties of stratocumulus clouds: the EUCREX mission 206 case study

In this conclusion paper, remote sensing retrievals of cloud optical thickness performed during the EUCREX mission 206 are analyzed. The comparison with estimates derived from in situ measurements demonstrates that the adiabatic model of cloud microphysics is more realistic than the vertically uniform plane parallel model (VUPPM) for parameterization of optical thickness. The analysis of the frequency distributions of optical thickness in the cloud layer then shows that the adiabatic model provides a good prediction when the cloud layer is thick and homogeneous, while it overestimates significantly the optical thickness when the layer is thin and broken. Finally, it is shown that the effective optical thickness over the whole sampled cloud is smaller than the adiabatic prediction based on the mean geometrical thickness of the cloud layer. The high sensitivity of the optical thickness on cloud geometrical thickness suggests that the effect of aerosol and droplet concentration on precipitation efficiency, and therefore on cloud extent and lifetime, is likely to be more significant than the Twomey effect.

Calibration of high resolution remote sensing instruments in the visible and near infrared

Abstract Measurements of the reflected solar radiation with high spectral resolution airborne instruments are usually used to develop new remote sensing techniques. The observed spectral features in the signals provide the possibility to define useful band settings for future satellite instruments. A precise wavelength and radiometric calibration is a prerequisite for such tasks. In this paper, a calibration procedure for the airborne spectrometer OVID is presented. The Optical Visible and near Infrared Detector consists of two similar detector systems, (600 – 1100 nm = VIS and 900 – 1700 nm = NIR). The spectral resolution is ≈1.7 nm for the VIS-system and ≈6 nm for the IR-system. This instrument is applied for the retrieval of water vapour content, aerosol and cloud properties. Besides the spectral and intensity calibration, also corrections for the dark current signals and for defective pixels have been performed. An indirect verification of the calibration procedure by the comparison of OVID measurements in cloudy and cloud free atmospheres with radiative transfer simulations is discussed in this paper. The used radiation transfer model MOMO is based on the matrix operator method.

Retrieval of cloud optical and microphysical properties from multispectral radiances

This paper describes measurements made with a high spectral resolution radiometer (OVID) during the EUCREX mission 206, for the retrieval of optical and microphysical cloud properties. The retrieval algorithm is based on the calculation of the radiative transfer through a cloudy atmosphere with a numerical model based on the Matrix Operator method. The simulation of the spectral radiances at the flight level in 942 spectral channels fits precisely the actual spectra measured with OVID, with a good description of the absorption and scattering features. A number of 1486 simulations, based on a plane parallel model of clouds with various combinations of cloud optical thickness and droplet effective radius, form the lookup table of reflectance values that are used to retrieve these parameters from the measured spectra. The OVID measurements performed along five legs flown by the DLR-F20 aircraft during the EUCREX mission 206 have been processed. The retrieved values of optical thickness and effective radius are compared in the EUCREX summary paper to estimates derived from in situ measurements and values retrieved from airborne lidar and radiometric measurements as well as from satellite radiometric measurements.

Comparison of stratus cloud properties derived from coincident airborne visible and ground‐based infrared spectrometer measurements

Results of a remote sensing validation experiment are reported. Above cloud measurements of reflected solar radiation were made with a grating spectrometer, coincident below cloud measurements of emitted thermal radiation with a FTIR spectrometer. Two remote sensing algorithms based on radiative transfer simulations were employed to retrieve visible optical depths and effective droplet radii. The values derived from both measurements are consistent and indicative for the cloud vertical structure.