Publication Abstracts
Dzambo et al. 2021
Dzambo, A.M., T.S. L'Ecuyer, , , S. Gupta, G.M. McFarquhar, J.R. O'Brien, , , and , 2021: Joint cloud water path and rain water path retrievals from ORACLES observations. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, no. 7, 5513-5532, doi:10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021.
This study presents a new algorithm that combines W-band reflectivity measurements from the Airborne Precipitation Radar — 3rd generation (APR-3), passive radiometric cloud optical depth and effective radius retrievals from the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) to estimate total liquid water path in warm clouds and identify the contributions from cloud water path (CWP) and rainwater path (RWP). The resulting CWP estimates are primarily determined by the optical depth input, although reflectivity measurements contribute ∼10-50% of the uncertainty due to attenuation through the profile. Uncertainties in CWP estimates across all conditions are 25% to 35%, while RWP uncertainty estimates frequently exceed 100%.
Two thirds of all radar-detected clouds observed during the ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) campaign that took place from 2016-2018 over the southeast Atlantic Ocean have CWP between 41 and 168 g/m2 and almost all CWPs (99%) between 6 to 445 g/m2. RWP, by contrast, typically makes up a much smaller fraction of total liquid water path (LWP) with more than 70% of raining clouds having less than 10 g/m2 of rainwater. In heavier warm rain (i.e. rain rate exceeding 40 mm/h or 1000 mm/d), however, RWP is observed to exceed 2500 g/m2. CWP (RWP) is found to be approximately 30 g/m2 (7 g/m2) larger in unstable environments compared to stable environments. Surface precipitation is also more than twice as likely in unstable environments. Comparisons against in-situ cloud microphysical probe data spanning the range of thermodynamic stability and meteorological conditions encountered across the southeast Atlantic basin demonstrate that the combined APR-3 and RSP dataset enable a robust joint cloud-precipitation retrieval algorithm to support future ORACLES precipitation susceptibility and cloud-aerosol-precipitation interaction studies.
Export citation: [ BibTeX ] [ RIS ]
BibTeX Citation
@article{dz01000b,
author={Dzambo, A. M. and L'Ecuyer, T. S. and Sinclair, K. and van Diedenhoven, B. and Gupta, S. and McFarquhar, G. M. and O'Brien, J. R. and Cairns, B. and Wasilewski, A. and Alexandrov, M.},
title={Joint cloud water path and rain water path retrievals from ORACLES observations},
year={2021},
journal={Atmos. Chem. Phys.},
volume={21},
number={7},
pages={5513--5532},
doi={10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021},
}
[ Close ]
RIS Citation
TY - JOUR ID - dz01000b AU - Dzambo, A. M. AU - L'Ecuyer, T. S. AU - Sinclair, K. AU - van Diedenhoven, B. AU - Gupta, S. AU - McFarquhar, G. M. AU - O'Brien, J. R. AU - Cairns, B. AU - Wasilewski, A. AU - Alexandrov, M. PY - 2021 TI - Joint cloud water path and rain water path retrievals from ORACLES observations JA - Atmos. Chem. Phys. VL - 21 IS - 7 SP - 5513 EP - 5532 DO - 10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021 ER -
[ Close ]
