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| Titel |
An intercomparison of radar-based liquid cloud microphysics retrievals and implications for model evaluation studies |
| VerfasserIn |
D. Huang, C. Zhao, M. Dunn, X. Dong, G. G. Mace, M. P. Jensen, S. Xie, Y. Liu |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1867-1381
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ; 5, no. 6 ; Nr. 5, no. 6 (2012-06-25), S.1409-1424 |
| Datensatznummer |
250002974
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/amt-5-1409-2012.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| This paper presents a statistical comparison of three cloud retrieval
products of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program at the
Southern Great Plains (SGP) site from 1998 to 2006: MICROBASE,
University of Utah (UU), and University of North Dakota (UND) products. The
probability density functions of the various cloud liquid water content
(LWC) retrievals appear to be consistent with each other. While the mean
MICROBASE and UU cloud LWC retrievals agree well in the middle of cloud, the
discrepancy increases to about 0.03 gm−3 at cloud top and cloud base.
Alarmingly large differences are found in the droplet effective radius
(re) retrievals. The mean MICROBASE re is more than 6 μm lower than
the UU re, whereas the discrepancy is reduced to within 1 μm if columns
containing raining and/or mixed-phase layers are excluded from the
comparison. A suite of stratified comparisons and retrieval experiments
reveal that the LWC difference stems primarily from rain contamination,
partitioning of total liquid later path (LWP) into warm and supercooled
liquid, and the input cloud mask and LWP. The large discrepancy among the
re retrievals is mainly due to rain contamination and the presence of
mixed-phase layers. Since rain or ice particles are likely to dominate radar
backscattering over cloud droplets, the large discrepancy found in this
paper can be thought of as a physical limitation of single-frequency radar
approaches. It is therefore suggested that data users should use the
retrievals with caution when rain and/or mixed-phase layers are present in
the column. |
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