Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-636
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-636
04 Apr 2023
 | 04 Apr 2023

Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective

Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell

Abstract. Most Arctic clouds occur below 2 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 amount 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 downlooking Microwave Radar/radiometer for Arctic Clouds (MiRAC) radar reflectivity measurements. MiRAC has been operated during four aircraft campaigns taking place in the vicinity of Svalbard during different times of the year and covering more than 25,000 km. This allows us to study the dependence of CloudSat limitations on different synoptic and surface conditions.

A forward simulator converts MiRAC measurements to synthetic CloudSat radar reflectivities. These forward simulations are compared with the original CloudSat observations for four satellite underflights to prove the suitability of our forward- simulation approach. Above CloudSat’s blind zone of 1 km and below 2.5 km, the forward simulations reveal that CloudSat would overestimate the MiRAC cloud fraction over all campaigns by about 6 percent points (pp) due to its horizontal resolution, 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.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

11 Sep 2023
Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4081–4100, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023, 2023
Short summary
Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-636', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Jun 2023
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Imke Schirmacher, 30 Jun 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-636', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jun 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Imke Schirmacher, 30 Jun 2023

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-636', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Jun 2023
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Imke Schirmacher, 30 Jun 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-636', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jun 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Imke Schirmacher, 30 Jun 2023

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Imke Schirmacher on behalf of the Authors (30 Jun 2023)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (03 Jul 2023) by Stefan Kneifel
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (12 Jul 2023)
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (21 Jul 2023)
ED: Publish as is (24 Jul 2023) by Stefan Kneifel
AR by Imke Schirmacher on behalf of the Authors (27 Jul 2023)  Author's response   Manuscript 

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

11 Sep 2023
Assessing Arctic low-level clouds and precipitation from above – a radar perspective
Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4081–4100, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4081-2023, 2023
Short summary
Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell
Imke Schirmacher, Pavlos Kollias, Katia Lamer, Mario Mech, Lukas Pfitzenmaier, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell

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Short summary
CloudSat’s relatively coarse spatial resolution, low sensitivity, and blind zone limit its assessment of Arctic low-level clouds, which affect the surface energy balance. We compare cloud fractions from CloudSat and fine-resolved airborne radar observations, to determine CloudSat’s limitations. Cloudsat overestimates cloud fractions above its blind zone, especially during cold air outbreaks over open water, and misses a cloud fraction of 32 % and half of the precipitation inside its blind zone.