Relationship between cirrus particle size and cloud top temperature

Author

Han, Qingyuan ; Chou, Joyce ; Welch, Ronald M.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Atmos. Sci., South Dakota Sch. of Mines & Technol., Rapid City, SD, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1997

fDate

3-8 Aug 1997

Firstpage

1760

Abstract

The relationship between cirrus particle size and cloud top temperature is surveyed on a near-global scale. The cirrus particle size is retrieved assuming ice crystals are hexagonal columns and the cloud top temperature and the radiances in channel 1 and 3 of AVHRR used to retrieve ice particle sizes are from ISCCP product. The results show that for thick clouds over North America, the relation between cirrus particle size and cloud top temperature is consistent with a summary of this relationship based on aircraft measurement over that region for thick clouds. However, this relationship is not universal for other regions especially for tropical zone, which has been found by other in situ measurements

Keywords

clouds; AVHRR; North America; atmosphere; cirrus; cloud top temperature; global scale; hexagonal column; ice crystal; infrared observations; meteorology; microphysics; particle size; tropical zone; visible observations; Aircraft; Clouds; Crystals; Ice thickness; North America; Optical feedback; Shape; Size measurement; Temperature; Thickness measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 1997. IGARSS '97. Remote Sensing - A Scientific Vision for Sustainable Development., 1997 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3836-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1997.609061

Filename

609061