Macrophysical properties of specific cloud types from radiosonde and surface active remote sensing measurements over the ARM Southern Great Plains site

摘要

Accurate observation of clouds is challenging because of the high variability and complexity of cloud types and occurrences. By using the long-term cloud data collected during the ARM program at the Southern Great Plains central facility during 2001–2010, the consistencies and differences in the macrophysical properties of clouds between radiosonde and ground-based active remote sensing are quantitatively evaluated according to six cloud types: low; mid-low (ML); high-mid-low; mid; high-mid (HM); and high. A similar variability trend is exhibited by the radiosonde and surface observations for the cloud fractions of the six cloud types. However, the magnitudes of the differences between the two methods are different among the six cloud types, with the largest difference seen in the high clouds. The distribution of the cloud-base height of the ML, mid, and HM clouds agrees in both methods, whereas large differences are seen in the cloud-top height for the ML and high clouds. The cloud thickness variations generally agree between the two datasets for the six cloud types.摘要云变化迅速且类型复杂，获取准确的云观测信息具有一定挑战。本文使用2001-2010年期间南部大平原的大气辐射观测实验数据，定量评估了探空和地基主动遥感观测六种类型云（低云、中低云、高中低云、中云、高中云、高云）的一致性和差异。尽管探空和地基观测六类云的云量变化趋势相近，但是针对不同类型云，两者探测结果存在一定差异，其中高云差异最大。两者对中低云、中云和高中云的云底高度的观测吻合较好，对中低云和高云的云顶高度的观测差异较大，对所有类型云的云厚度的观测均吻合较好。