Publications

Nagao, TM; Suzuki, K (2022). Characterizing Vertical Stratification of the Cloud Thermodynamic Phase With a Combined Use of CALIPSO Lidar and MODIS SWIR Measurements. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 127(21), e2022JD036826.

Abstract
The cloud thermodynamic phase information derived from the CALIPSO lidar (CALIOP) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) channels of Aqua/MODIS represents different penetration depths within a cloud layer. This study combined them to better characterize the vertical stratification of the cloud thermodynamic phase within the atmospheric column. The temperature dependences of the phase occurrences were first compared between the two sensors to find a significant quantitative difference, which appeared to be large enough to affect climate model evaluations of the cloud phase representations. The two pieces of cloud phase information obtained from the two sensors, each binarized into liquid or ice, were then combined to define the four categories of cloud phases resulting from combinations of the two sensors that provide two cloud phases each (liquid and ice). Global occurrences of the four phase categories were validated against temperature information from MODIS thermal infrared (TIR) channels to confirm that the four categories are reasonably associated with cloud-top temperature and brightness temperature differences. The vertical stratification of the cloud thermodynamic phase characterized by CALIOP and SWIR was then investigated through comparisons with CloudSat/CPR radar profile statistics to illustrate how cloud vertical structures vary systematically with different combinations of the two cloud phases from CALIOP and SWIR. The results suggest that the combined use of complementary information from the four sensors (lidar, SWIR, TIR, and radar) can better characterize the vertical structures of the cloud thermodynamic phase, which could then provide more detailed observational constraints for model representations of the cloud phase.

DOI:
10.1029/2022JD036826

ISSN:
2169-8996