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- ItemMeasurement report: Balloon-borne in situ profiling of Saharan dust over Cyprus with the UCASS optical particle counter(Katlenburg-Lindau : European Geosciences Union, 2021) Kezoudi, Maria; Tesche, Matthias; Smith, Helen; Tsekeri, Alexandra; Baars, Holger; Dollner, Maximilian; Estellés, Víctor; Bühl, Johannes; Weinzierl, Bernadett; Ulanowski, Zbigniew; Müller, Detlef; Amiridis, VassilisThis paper presents measurements of mineral dust concentration in the diameter range from 0.4 to 14.0 µm with a novel balloon-borne optical particle counter, the Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (UCASS). The balloon launches were coordinated with ground-based active and passive remote-sensing observations and airborne in situ measurements with a research aircraft during a Saharan dust outbreak over Cyprus from 20 to 23 April 2017. The aerosol optical depth at 500 nm reached values up to 0.5 during that event over Cyprus, and particle number concentrations were as high as 50 cm−3 for the diameter range between 0.8 and 13.9 µm. Comparisons of the total particle number concentration and the particle size distribution from two cases of balloon-borne measurements with aircraft observations show reasonable agreement in magnitude and shape despite slight mismatches in time and space. While column-integrated size distributions from balloon-borne measurements and ground-based remote sensing show similar coarse-mode peak concentrations and diameters, they illustrate the ambiguity related to the missing vertical information in passive sun photometer observations. Extinction coefficient inferred from the balloon-borne measurements agrees with those derived from coinciding Raman lidar observations at height levels with particle number concentrations smaller than 10 cm−3 for the diameter range from 0.8 to 13.9 µm. An overestimation of the UCASS-derived extinction coefficient of a factor of 2 compared to the lidar measurement was found for layers with particle number concentrations that exceed 25 cm−3, i.e. in the centre of the dust plume where particle concentrations were highest. This is likely the result of a variation in the refractive index and the shape and size dependency of the extinction efficiency of dust particles along the UCASS measurements. In the future, profile measurements of the particle number concentration and particle size distribution with the UCASS could provide a valuable addition to the measurement capabilities generally used in field experiments that are focussed on the observation of coarse aerosols and clouds.
- ItemThe dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique: A new concept in monitoring aerosol effects in liquid-water clouds - Case studies(Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2020) Jimenez, Cristofer; Ansmann, Albert; Engelmann, Ronny; Donovan, David; Malinka, Aleksey; Seifert, Patric; Wiesen, Robert; Radenz, Martin; Yin, Zhenping; Bühl, Johannes; Schmidt, Jörg; Barja, Boris; Wandinger, UllaIn a companion article (Jimenez et al., 2020), we introduced a new lidar method to derive microphysical properties of liquid-water clouds (cloud extinction coefficient, droplet effective radius, liquid-water content, cloud droplet number concentration Nd) at a height of 50-100m above the cloud base together with aerosol information (aerosol extinction coefficients, cloud condensation nuclei concentration NCCN) below the cloud layer so that detailed studies of the influence of given aerosol conditions on the evolution of liquid-water cloud layers with high temporal resolution solely based on lidar observations have become possible now. The novel cloud retrieval technique makes use of lidar observations of the volume linear depolarization ratio at two different receiver field of views (FOVs). In this article, Part 2, the new dual-FOV polarization lidar technique is applied to cloud measurements in pristine marine conditions at Punta Arenas in southern Chile. A multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar, upgraded by integrating a second polarization-sensitive channel to permit depolarization ratio observations at two FOVs, was used for these measurements at the southernmost tip of South America. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the potential of the new lidar technique. Successful aerosol-cloud-interaction (ACI) studies based on measurements with the upgraded aerosol-cloud lidar in combination with a Doppler lidar of the vertical wind component could be carried out with 1 min temporal resolution at these pristine conditions. In a stratocumulus layer at the top of the convective boundary layer, we found values of Nd and NCCN (for 0.2% water supersaturation) ranging from 15-100 and 75-200 cm-3, respectively, during updraft periods. The studies of the aerosol impact on cloud properties yielded ACI values close to 1. The impact of aerosol water uptake on the ACI studies was analyzed with the result that the highest ACI values were obtained when considering aerosol proxies (light-extinction coefficient par or NCCN) measured at heights about 500m below the cloud base (and thus for dry aerosol conditions). © 2020 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
- ItemIce crystal number concentration from lidar, cloud radar and radar wind profiler measurements(Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2019) Bühl, Johannes; Seifert, Patric; Radenz, Martin; Ansmann, AlbertA new method for the retrieval of ice crystal number concentration (ICNC) from combined active remote-sensing measurements of Raman lidar, cloud radar and radar wind profiler is presented. We exploit – for the first time – measurements of terminal fall velocity together with the radar reflectivity factor and/or the lidar-derived particle extinction coefficient in clouds for retrieving the number concentration of pristine ice particles with presumed particle shapes. A lookup table approach for the retrieval of the properties of the particle size distribution from observed parameters is presented. Analysis of methodological uncertainties and error propagation is performed, which shows that a retrieval of ice particle number concentration based on terminal fall velocity is possible within 1 order of magnitude. Comparison between a retrieval of the number concentration based on terminal fall velocity on the one hand and lidar and cloud radar on the other shows agreement within the uncertainties of the retrieval.