Publication Date
5-1-2024
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Earth and Space Science
Volume
11
Issue
5
DOI
10.1029/2023EA003355
Abstract
Understanding distributions of cloud thermodynamic phases is important for accurately representing cloud radiative effects and cloud feedback in a changing climate. Satellite-based cloud phase data have been frequently used to compare with climate models, yet few studies validated them against in situ observations at a near-global scale. This study aims to validate three satellite-based cloud phase products using a compositive in situ airborne data set developed from 11 flight campaigns. Latitudinal-altitudinal cross sections of cloud phase occurrence frequencies are examined. The Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) show the most similar vertical profiles of ice phase frequencies compared with in situ observations. The CloudSat data overestimate mixed-phase frequencies up to 15 km but provide better sampling through cloud layers than lidar data. The DARDAR (raDAR/liDAR) data show a sharp transition between ice and liquid phase and overestimate ice phase frequency at most altitudes and latitudes. The satellite data are further evaluated for various latitudes, longitudes, and seasons, which show higher ice phase frequency in the extratropics in their respective wintertime and smaller impacts from longitudinal variations. The Southern Ocean shows a thicker mixing region where liquid and ice phases have similar frequencies compared with tropics and Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropics. Two comparison methods with different spatiotemporal windows show similar results, which demonstrates the statistical robustness of these comparisons. Overall, this study develops a near global-scale in situ observational data set to assess the accuracy of satellite-based cloud phase products and investigates the key factors affecting the distributions of cloud phases.
Funding Number
ROSES-2020 80NSSC21K1457
Funding Sponsor
National Science Foundation
Keywords
CALIPSO, cloud phase, CloudSat, DARDAR, in situ observations, satellite validation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Department
Meteorology and Climate Science
Recommended Citation
Dao Wang, Ching An Yang, and Minghui Diao. "Validation of Satellite-Based Cloud Phase Distributions Using Global-Scale In Situ Airborne Observations" Earth and Space Science (2024). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EA003355
