Cloud and aerosol characterization for the ARM central facility: Multiple remote sensor techniques development. Final technical report.

摘要

In support of the initial phase of the Instrument Development Program (IDP) of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, the authors have researched the means by which multiple remote sensing techniques could be best applied to characterizing the cloudy atmosphere. This research has directly supported the short-term goal of aiding in the selection of the most appropriate instrumentation for ARM Clouds and Radiation Testbed (CART) sites, but also has more long-term consequences for the application of remote sensing for measuring cloud properties of crucial concern to general circulation and climate models. To accomplish the goals they have (1) developed a mobile, state-of-the-art, scanning polarization diversity lidar (PDL) to test a variety of techniques for cloud remote sensing, including simultaneous dual-wavelength and dual-polarization, and high-speed variable field-of-view operations; (2) successfully participated in field projects using the PDL along with other remote sensors and instrumented aircraft to obtain detailed datasets for the testing of instrument techniques; (3) in collaboration with researchers at the NOAA Wave Propagation Laboratory, used numerical cloud modeling and empirical studies to develop and refine remote sensing approaches for cloud property retrieval.