Measurement errors in cirrus cloud microphysical properties

Larsen, Howard; Gayet, Jean-François; Febvre, Guy; Chepfer, Hélène; Brogniez, Gérard

doi:10.1007/s00585-998-0266-8

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Results from forward scattering probes have been shown to be contaminated by the shattering of large particles on the leading edges of the probes (Field et al 2003;Heymsfield et al 2006). This can lead to artificially high concentrations of small particles in the presence of large ice particles, giving the appearance of bimodality (Larsen et al 1998). Ryan (2000) points out that the commonly observed transition from the small mode to large mode in a measured bimodal size distribution takes place at the cutoff point between different probes.…”

Section: Psd Properties Of Low-latitude Tropopause Cirrusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Size Distribution and Mass-Weighted Terminal Velocity of Low-Latitude Tropopause Cirrus Crystal Populations

Schmitt

Heymsfield

2009

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

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Ice crystal terminal velocities govern the lifetime of radiatively complex, climatologically important, lowlatitude tropopause cirrus clouds. To better understand cloud lifetimes, the terminal velocities of low-latitude tropopause cirrus cloud particles have been estimated using data from aircraft field campaigns. Data used in this study were collected during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) and the Pre-Aura Validation Experiment (Pre-AVE). Particle properties were measured with the NCAR video ice particle sampler (VIPS) probe, thus providing information about particles in a poorly understood size range. Data used in this study were limited to high-altitude nonconvective thin clouds with temperatures between 2568 and 2868C.Realistic particle terminal velocity estimates require accurate values of particle projected area and mass. Exponential functions were used to predict the dimensional properties of ice particles smaller than 200 microns and were found to predict ice water content measurements well when compared to power-law representations. The shapes of the particle size distributions were found to be monomodal and were well represented by exponential or gamma functions. Incorporating these findings into terminal velocity calculations led to lower values of mass-weighted terminal velocities for particle populations than are currently predicted for low-latitude ice clouds. New parameterizations for individual particle properties as well as particle size distribution properties are presented and compared to commonly used parameterizations. Results from this study are appropriate for use in estimating the properties of low-latitude thin and subvisible cirrus at temperatures lower than 2568C.

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Section: Psd Properties Of Low-latitude Tropopause Cirrusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Size Distribution and Mass-Weighted Terminal Velocity of Low-Latitude Tropopause Cirrus Crystal Populations

Schmitt

Heymsfield

2009

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

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“…It is a well established fact that the radiative properties of cirrus clouds are significantly different from that of water clouds. Recent direct measurements of the scattering phase function with a polar nephelometer show an enhanced side scattering at scattering angles of about 100 • for ice clouds [34]. The differences are attributed to distinctions in the microphysical properties.…”

Section: Verification and Application Of The Approximationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Scattering oF Plane Waves on Finite Cylinders with Non-circular Cross-Sections

Rother¹,

Havemann²,

Schmidt³

1999

PIER

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“…The ice and water content IWC, derived from particle counts may be therefore underestimated, and result in a systematic error. We shall consider here a precision for IWC of 10% due to instrumental noise, though the systematic error may be substantially larger (Larsen et al, 1998) and probably shift the pro®les of occurrence distributions to higher values. Nevertheless, since the discussion is based mainly on the slopes of cumulative distributions, this eect will not be taken into account in the present work.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical distributions of water content and sizes for clouds above Europe

Berton¹

2000

Ann Geophysicae

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Abstract. The statistics of quantities involved in the synthesis of cloud scenes have been investigated from an original data base. Frequency distributions of ice and water content (IWC), horizontal and vertical sizes (L and H), and top temperatures (T) of clouds above Europe have been derived for nine types of clouds (As, Cb, Ci, Cg, LwCg, OrCg, Cs, Ns, Sc). It appears that the cumulated frequency plots can be well ®tted with log-normal or Weibull pro®les, and that for IWC and T cloud types can be split into two or three classes according to slopes in logarithmic coordinates. Crosscorrelation coecients between IWC, L, H and T have been also derived. Implications for the physics of the cloud build-up processes are brie¯y outlined. Critical analysis and comparison of other published results are proposed.

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Measurement errors in cirrus cloud microphysical properties

Cited by 16 publications

References 41 publications

The Size Distribution and Mass-Weighted Terminal Velocity of Low-Latitude Tropopause Cirrus Crystal Populations

The Size Distribution and Mass-Weighted Terminal Velocity of Low-Latitude Tropopause Cirrus Crystal Populations

Scattering oF Plane Waves on Finite Cylinders with Non-circular Cross-Sections

Statistical distributions of water content and sizes for clouds above Europe

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