Identification

Title

The chalmers cloud ice climatology: A novel robust climate record of frozen cloud hydrometeor concentrations

Abstract

Frozen cloud particles are an important component of the hydrological cycle and significantly influence the Earth's energy budget. Despite their important role, observational records constraining concentrations of atmospheric ice remain severely limited. Although combined radar and lidar estimates from the CloudSat and CALIPSO missions offer over a decade of high‐quality data on ice hydrometeor concentrations, these estimates remain sparse. In contrast, products derived from passive satellite sensors typically provide better spatiotemporal coverage but disagree with CloudSat‐based measurements. To address these limitations, we present a novel climate data record of total ice water path (TIWP), the Chalmers Cloud Ice Climatology (CCIC). It spans 40 years, from 1983 to the present, covering latitudes from S to N. CCIC offers TIWP estimates at three‐hourly resolution from 1983 and half‐hourly resolution from 2000 onwards. We demonstrate the long‐term stability of CCIC by directly comparing it with CloudSat/CALIPSO‐based estimates over the entire mission lifetime. Additionally, we assess CCIC against other long‐term TIWP records, revealing that CCIC yields the most accurate TIWP estimates compared to CloudSat/CALIPSO‐based reference estimates. Analysis of regional 40 year trends across four long‐term TIWP data sets indicates an increase of TIWP over the Southern Ocean and the east Bering Sea in two observational data sets and ERA5. The CCIC climate record closes the gap between existing long‐term TIWP records and CloudSat/CALIPSO‐based reference measurements. The estimates' continuous coverage and demonstrated accuracy make it a valuable resource for lifecycle studies of storms and the analysis of fine‐scale cloud features in a changing climate.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pn9b2b

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-03-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact