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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1364
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1364
01 Aug 2023
 | 01 Aug 2023

Evaluation of Four Ground-based Retrievals of Cloud Droplet Number Concentration in Marine Stratocumulus with Aircraft In Situ Measurements

Damao Zhang, Andrew Vogelmann, Fan Yang, Edward Luke, Pavlos Kollias, Zhien Wang, Peng Wu, William Gustafson Jr., Fan Mei, Susanne Glienke, Jason Tomlinson, and Neel Desai

Abstract. Cloud droplet number concentration (Nd) is crucial for understanding aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) and associated radiative effects. We present evaluations of four ground-based Nd retrievals based on comprehensive datasets from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign. The Nd retrieval methods use ARM ENA observatory ground-based remote sensing observations from a Micropulse lidar, Raman lidar, cloud radar, and the ARM NDROP Value-added Product (VAP), all of which also retrieve cloud effective radius (re). The retrievals are compared against aircraft measurements from the Fast-Cloud Droplet Probe (FCDP) and the Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS) obtained from low-level marine boundary layer clouds on 12 flight days during summer and winter seasons. Additionally, the in situ measurements are used to validate the assumptions and characterizations used in the retrieval algorithms. Statistical comparisons of the probability distribution function (PDF) of the Nd and cloud re retrievals with aircraft measurements demonstrate that these retrievals align well with in situ measurements for overcast clouds, but they may substantially differ for broken clouds or clouds with low liquid water path (LWP). The retrievals are applied to four years of ground-based remote sensing measurements of overcast marine boundary layer clouds at the ARM ENA observatory to find that Nd (re) values exhibit seasonal variations, with higher (lower) values during the summer season and lower (higher) values during the winter season. The ensemble of various retrievals using different measurements and retrieval algorithms such as those in this paper can help to quantify Nd retrieval uncertainties and identify reliable Nd retrieval scenarios. Of the retrieval methods, we recommend using the using the Micropulse lidar-based method given its good agreement with in situ measurements, it has less sensitivity to issues arising from precipitation and low cloud LWP/optical depth, and it has broad applicability by functioning for both day and nighttime conditions.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

06 Dec 2023
Evaluation of four ground-based retrievals of cloud droplet number concentration in marine stratocumulus with aircraft in situ measurements
Damao Zhang, Andrew M. Vogelmann, Fan Yang, Edward Luke, Pavlos Kollias, Zhien Wang, Peng Wu, William I. Gustafson Jr., Fan Mei, Susanne Glienke, Jason Tomlinson, and Neel Desai
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5827–5846, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5827-2023, 2023
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Cloud droplet number concentration can be retrieved from remote sensing measurements. Aircraft...
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