Identification

Title

Cirrus cloud macrophysical and optical properties over north China from CALIOP measurements

Abstract

Two years of mid-latitude cirrus cloud macrophysical and optical properties over North China are described from Earth-orbiting Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) satellite measurements. Global cloud climatological studies based on active remote sensing data sets benefit from more accurate resolution of vertical structure and more reliable detection of optically thin layers. The mean values for cirrus cases over North China are 0.19±0.18 for infrared emittance, 0.41±0.68 for visible optical depth, 0.26±0.12 for integrated depolarization ratio, and 0.72±0.22 for integrated color ratio. When studied using reasonable assumptions for the relationship between extinction and ice crystal backscatter coefficients, our results show that most of the cirrus clouds profiled using the 0.532 μm channel data stream correspond with an optical depth of less than 1.0. The dependence of cirrus cloud properties on cirrus cloud mid-cloud temperature and geometry thickness are generally similar to the results derived from the ground-based lidar, which are mainly impacted by the adiabatic process on the ice cloud content. However, the differences in macrophysical parameter variability indicate the limits of spaceborne-lidar and dissimilarities in regional climate variability and the nature and source of cloud nuclei in different geographical regions.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7h41s2z

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

2011-05-01T00:00:00Z

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

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