Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
Abstract km altitude, as revealed by CloudSat satellite observations. However, recent studies suggest that the relatively coarse spatial resolution, low sensitivity, and blind zone of the radar installed on CloudSat may not enable it to comprehensively document low-level clouds. We investigate the impact of these limitations on the Arctic low-level cloud fraction, which is the number of cloudy points with respect to all points as a function of height, derived from CloudSat radar observations. For this purpose, we leverage highly resolved vertical profiles of low-level cloud fraction derived from down-looking Microwave Radar/radiometer for Arctic Clouds (MiRAC) radar reflectivity measurements. MiRAC was operated during four aircraft campaigns that took place in the vicinity of Svalbard during different times of the year, covering more than 25 000 km. This allows us to study the dependence of CloudSat limitations on different synoptic and surface conditions. km and below 2.5 km, the forward simulations reveal that CloudSat would overestimate the MiRAC cloud fraction over all campaigns by about 6 percentage points (pp) due to its horizontal resolution and by 12 pp due to its range resolution and underestimate it by 10 pp due to its sensitivity. Especially during cold-air outbreaks over open water, high-reflectivity clouds appear below 1.5 km, which are stretched by CloudSat's pulse length causing the forward-simulated cloud fraction to be 16 pp higher than that observed by MiRAC. The pulse length merges multilayer clouds, whereas thin low-reflectivity clouds remain undetected. Consequently, 48 % of clouds observed by MiRAC belong to multilayer clouds, which reduces by a factor of 4 for the forward-simulated CloudSat counterpart. Despite the overestimation between 1 and 2.5 km, the overall low-level cloud fraction is strongly reduced due to CloudSat's blind zone that misses a cloud fraction of 32 % and half of the total (mainly light) precipitation amount.
- Location
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
- Extent
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Online-Ressource
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective ; volume:16 ; number:17 ; year:2023 ; pages:4081-4100 ; extent:20
Atmospheric measurement techniques ; 16, Heft 17 (2023), 4081-4100 (gesamt 20)
- Creator
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Schirmacher, Imke
Kollias, Pavlos
Lamer, Katia
Mech, Mario
Pfitzenmaier, Lukas
Wendisch, Manfred
Crewell, Susanne
- DOI
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10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023
- URN
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urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023091404191231675529
- Rights
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Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
- Last update
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14.08.2025, 11:02 AM CEST
Data provider
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Associated
- Schirmacher, Imke
- Kollias, Pavlos
- Lamer, Katia
- Mech, Mario
- Pfitzenmaier, Lukas
- Wendisch, Manfred
- Crewell, Susanne
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Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
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Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
Zur Bestimmbarkeit des optisch-äquivalenten komplexen Brechungsindex atmosphärischer Aerosolteilchen aus spektralen Extinktions- und Streulichtmessungen des Sonnenlichtes
Evaluation of downward and upward solar irradiances simulated by the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF using airborne observations above Arctic low-level clouds
Evaluation of downward and upward solar irradiances simulated by the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF using airborne observations above Arctic low-level clouds
Melt Ponds on Arctic Summer Sea Ice from Optical Satellite Data
Lagrangian single-column modeling of Arctic airmass transformation during HALO-(????)<sup>3</sup>
Combined retrieval of Arctic liquid water cloud and surface snow properties using airborne spectral solar remote sensing
Radiative energy budget and cloud radiative forcing in the daytime marginal sea ice zone during Arctic spring and summer
Optical Thickness Retrievals of Subtropical Cirrus and Arctic Stratus from Ground-Based and Airborne Radiance Observations Using Imaging Spectrometers
Case study of a humidity layer above Arctic stratocumulus using balloon-borne turbulence and radiation measurements and large eddy simulations
Determining the surface mixing layer height of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer during polar night in cloudless and cloudy conditions
Amplified climate changes in the arctic : role of clouds and atmospheric radiation ; [Vortrag gehalten in der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig am 12. Oktober 2012]
Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
Zur Bestimmbarkeit des optisch-äquivalenten komplexen Brechungsindex atmosphärischer Aerosolteilchen aus spektralen Extinktions- und Streulichtmessungen des Sonnenlichtes
Evaluation of downward and upward solar irradiances simulated by the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF using airborne observations above Arctic low-level clouds
Evaluation of downward and upward solar irradiances simulated by the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF using airborne observations above Arctic low-level clouds
Melt Ponds on Arctic Summer Sea Ice from Optical Satellite Data
Lagrangian single-column modeling of Arctic airmass transformation during HALO-(????)<sup>3</sup>
Combined retrieval of Arctic liquid water cloud and surface snow properties using airborne spectral solar remote sensing
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Optical Thickness Retrievals of Subtropical Cirrus and Arctic Stratus from Ground-Based and Airborne Radiance Observations Using Imaging Spectrometers
Case study of a humidity layer above Arctic stratocumulus using balloon-borne turbulence and radiation measurements and large eddy simulations
Determining the surface mixing layer height of the Arctic atmospheric boundary layer during polar night in cloudless and cloudy conditions