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    Radiative budget and cloud radiative effect over the Atlantic from ship-based observations
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2012) Kalisch, J.; Macke, A.
    The aim of this study is to determine cloud-type resolved cloud radiative budgets and cloud radiative effects from surface measurements of broadband radiative fluxes over the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, based on simultaneous observations of the state of the cloudy atmosphere, a radiative closure study has been performed by means of the ECHAM5 single column model in order to identify the model's ability to realistically reproduce the effects of clouds on the climate system. An extensive database of radiative and atmospheric measurements has been established along five meridional cruises of the German research icebreaker Polarstern. Besides pyranometer and pyrgeometer for downward broadband solar and thermal radiative fluxes, a sky imager and a microwave radiometer have been utilized to determine cloud fraction and cloud type on the one hand and temperature and humidity profiles as well as liquid water path for warm non-precipitating clouds on the other hand. Averaged over all cruise tracks, we obtain a total net (solar + thermal) radiative flux of 144 W m−2 that is dominated by the solar component. In general, the solar contribution is large for cirrus clouds and small for stratus clouds. No significant meridional dependencies were found for the surface radiation budgets and cloud effects. The strongest surface longwave cloud effects were shown in the presence of low level clouds. Clouds with a high optical density induce strong negative solar radiative effects under high solar altitudes. The mean surface net cloud radiative effect is −33 W m−2. For the purpose of quickly estimating the mean surface longwave, shortwave and net cloud effects in moderate, subtropical and tropical climate regimes, a new parameterisation was created, considering the total cloud amount and the solar zenith angle. The ECHAM5 single column model provides a surface net cloud effect that is more cooling by 17 W m−2 compared to the radiation observations. This overestimation in solar cooling is mostly caused by the shortwave impact of convective clouds. The latter show a large overestimation in solar cooling of up to 114 W m−2. Mean cloud radiative effects of cirrus and stratus clouds were simulated close to the observations.
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    Application of the shipborne remote sensing supersite OCEANET for profiling of Arctic aerosols and clouds during Polarstern cruise PS106
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2020) Griesche, Hannes J.; Seifer, Patric; Ansmann, Albert; Baars, Holger; Velasco, Carola Barrientos; Bühl, Johannes; Engelmann, Ronny; Radenz, Martin; Zhenping, Yin; Macke, Andreas
    From 25 May to 21 July 2017, the research vessel Polarstern performed the cruise PS106 to the high Arctic in the region north and northeast of Svalbard. The mobile remote-sensing platform OCEANET was deployed aboard Polarstern. Within a single container, OCEANET houses state-of-the-art remote-sensing equipment, including a multiwavelength Raman polarization lidar PollyXT and a 14-channel microwave radiometer HATPRO (Humidity And Temperature PROfiler). For the cruise PS106, the measurements were supplemented by a motion-stabilized 35 GHz cloud radar Mira-35. This paper describes the treatment of technical challenges which were immanent during the deployment of OCEANET in the high Arctic. This includes the description of the motion stabilization of the cloud radar Mira-35 to ensure vertical-pointing observations aboard the moving Polarstern as well as the applied correction of the vessels heave rate to provide valid Doppler velocities. The correction ensured a leveling accuracy of ±0.5◦ during transits through the ice and an ice floe camp. The applied heave correction reduced the signal induced by the vertical movement of the cloud radar in the PSD of the Doppler velocity by a factor of 15. Low-level clouds, in addition, frequently prevented a continuous analysis of cloud conditions from synergies of lidar and radar within Cloudnet, because the technically determined lowest detection height of Mira-35 was 165 m above sea level. To overcome this obstacle, an approach for identification of the cloud presence solely based on data from the near-field receiver of PollyXT at heights from 50 m and 165 m above sea level is presented. We found low-level stratus clouds, which were below the lowest detection range of most automatic ground-based remote-sensing instruments during 25 % of the observation time. We present case studies of aerosol and cloud studies to introduce the capabilities of the data set. In addition, new approaches for ice crystal effective radius and eddy dissipation rates from cloud radar measurements and the retrieval of aerosol optical and microphysical properties from the observations of PollyXT are introduced. © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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    Water vapour profiles from raman lidar automatically calibrated by microwave radiometer data during hope
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2015) Foth, A.; Baars, H.; Di Girolamo, P.; Pospichal, B.
    In this paper, we present a method to derive water vapour profiles from Raman lidar measurements calibrated by the integrated water vapour (IWV) from a collocated microwave radiometer during the intense observation campaign HOPE in the frame of the HD(CP)2 initiative. The simultaneous observation of a microwave radiometer and a Raman lidar allowed an operational and continuous measurement of water vapour profiles also during cloudy conditions. The calibration method provides results which are in a good agreement with conventional methods based on radiosondes. The calibration factor derived from the proposed IWV method is very stable with a relative uncertainty of 5 %. This stability allows for the calibration of the lidar even in the presence of clouds using the calibration factor determined during the most recent clear sky interval. Based on the application of this approach, it is possible to retrieve water vapour profiles during all non-precipitating conditions. A statistical analysis shows a good agreement between the lidar measurements and collocated radiosondes. The relative biases amount to less than 6.7 % below 2 km.