Thin and Subvisual Tropopause Tropical Cirrus: Observations and Radiative Impacts

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Abstract
In situ microphysical, remote sensing, and satellite observations of thin and subvisible cirrus have been used to establish their frequency of occurrence, determine their mean optical depths and radiative forcings, and to analyze their association with deep convection. A spatially thin layer of cirrus, with both base and top above 15 km, was observed in the central Pacific Tropics 29% of the time, with a mean thickness of 0.47 km, using a nadir-pointing Nd:YAG lidar operating at 1.064 μm during the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX). In situ microphysical data collected in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s by a WB-57 and Learjet near Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, are revisited to determine typical ice crystal sizes and shapes that occur in this cloud type. Three observed vertical profiles, obtained from ascents/descents through cloud, are used with a δ-four-stream radiative transfer model to calculate observed heating rates of up to 1.0 K day−1, principally in the infrared, and cloud radiativ... Abstract In situ microphysical, remote sensing, and satellite observations of thin and subvisible cirrus have been used to establish their frequency of occurrence, determine their mean optical depths and radiative forcings, and to analyze their association with deep convection. A spatially thin layer of cirrus, with both base and top above 15 km, was observed in the central Pacific Tropics 29% of the time, with a mean thickness of 0.47 km, using a nadir-pointing Nd:YAG lidar operating at 1.064 μm during the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX). In situ microphysical data collected in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s by a WB-57 and Learjet near Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, are revisited to determine typical ice crystal sizes and shapes that occur in this cloud type. Three observed vertical profiles, obtained from ascents/descents through cloud, are used with a δ-four-stream radiative transfer model to calculate observed heating rates of up to 1.0 K day−1, principally in the infrared, and cloud radiativ...

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