A Midlatitude Cirrus Cloud Climatology from the Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing. Part I: Macrophysical and Synoptic Properties
Open Access
- 1 March 2001
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Vol. 58 (5) , 481-496
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2001)058<0481:amcccf>2.0.co;2
Abstract
A uniquely extensive high cloud dataset has been collected from the University of Utah Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing in support of the First (ISCCP) International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment extended time observations satellite validation effort. Here in Part I of a series of papers examining the climatological properties of the cirrus clouds studied over Salt Lake City, Utah, ∼2200 h of data collected from 1986–96 is used to create a subset of 1389 hourly polarization ruby (0.694 μm) lidar measurements of cloud layer heights. These data were obtained within ±3 h of the local 0000 UTC National Weather Service radiosonde launches to provide reliable cloud temperature, pressure, and wind data. Future parts of this series will consider the inferred cirrus cloud microphysical and radiative properties. In addition to describing the cirrus macrophysical properties in terms of their yearly, seasonal, and monthly means and variabilities, the synoptic weather patterns... Abstract A uniquely extensive high cloud dataset has been collected from the University of Utah Facility for Atmospheric Remote Sensing in support of the First (ISCCP) International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment extended time observations satellite validation effort. Here in Part I of a series of papers examining the climatological properties of the cirrus clouds studied over Salt Lake City, Utah, ∼2200 h of data collected from 1986–96 is used to create a subset of 1389 hourly polarization ruby (0.694 μm) lidar measurements of cloud layer heights. These data were obtained within ±3 h of the local 0000 UTC National Weather Service radiosonde launches to provide reliable cloud temperature, pressure, and wind data. Future parts of this series will consider the inferred cirrus cloud microphysical and radiative properties. In addition to describing the cirrus macrophysical properties in terms of their yearly, seasonal, and monthly means and variabilities, the synoptic weather patterns...Keywords
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