Toward a quantitative characterization of heterogeneous ice formation with lidar/radar: Comparison of CALIPSO/CloudSat with ground-based observations

Abstract

We analyze and compare the different sensitivities of aerosol/cloud lidar and 35-GHz cloud radar to detect ice formation in midlevel clouds in order to harmonize mixed phase cloud observations performed with lidar and radar. We found good agreement between spaceborne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)/CloudSat and ground-based lidar/radar observations at Leipzig, Germany. However, large differences were found to a previous study with an 11-year cloud statistics solely based on lidar observations which is caused by significantly higher sensitivity of the cloud radar to detect ice crystals. By introducing a lidar detection threshold for the ice water content of 10-6kgm-3, we find that lidar and radar cloud statistics become increasingly similar. Key Points Our observations show good agreement with studies of CloudsatCalipso satellites. Introduction of detection threshold explains discrepancies to previous studies. Ice formation can be quantified by combining remote sensing and in-situ.. © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.