HR: 1330h
AN: A22A-1053    [PDF]
TI: Comparison of Cloud-Radiative Properties From Model Prediction and Satellite Retrievals during CRYSTAL-FACE
AU: * Wang, D
EM: d.h.wang@larc.nasa.gov
AF: Hampton University, MS 420 NASA Langley RFesearch Center, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Minnis, P
EM: p.minnis@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Heck, P W
EM: p.w.heck@larc.nasa.gov
AF: AS&M, Inc., 1 Enterprise Parkway, Hampton, VA 23666 United States
AU: Nguyen, L
EM: l.nguyen@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, MS 420, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Doelling, D R
EM: d.r.doelling@larc.nasa.gov
AF: AS&M, Inc., 1 Enterprise Parkway, Hampton, VA 23666 United States
AB: To better understand the physical properties and formation processes of tropical cirrus/anvil clouds with a view toward the successful modeling of the Earth's climate, the CRYSTAL-FACE (Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers - Florida Area Cirrus Experiment) field experiment took place over southern Florida from 1 July to 29 July 2002. During the entire field campaign, a very high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) and assimilation system, ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System), was performed in support of the mission. ARPS is a multi-purpose modeling system capable of both data analysis/assimilation and multi-scale NWP ranging from cloud-scale to larger regional scale. The system has multi-nesting capability and contains detailed interactive physics for explicit cloud-resolving, land surface effect, cloud-radiation interactive transfer, cloud microphysics, and turbulence. In the real-time forecast, two nested 15/3 km grids are employed over the CRYSTAL-FACE experiment area. The 15-km grid covers the southeast US domain, and is run two times daily for a 36-hour forecast starting at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC. The nested 3-km grid covering only southern Florida is used for 18-hour and 9-hour forecasts starting at 0600 and 1500 UTC, respectively. The forecast products were made available on the internet. The model predicts the 3-D cloud fields (cloud liquid water, rain water, cloud ice, snow and graupel/hail) and the associated radiative transfer properties, which can be used to characterize convection-anvils systems in dynamics and microphysics and their roles in both regional and global weather/climate. The satellite remote sensing retrieval using multispectral radiance data from the NOAA GOES satellite was used to provide satellite-derived cloud-radiative properties including cloud fraction, temperature, height, thickness, phase, optical depth, effective particle size and ice or liquid water path; and TOA fluxes and albedos. The preliminary results of the intercomparison show that the cloud fields from model and satellite-derived compare well, particularly for the frequency distributions of cloud ice water path. Those satellite-derived products will also be compared to the 4D higher-resolution (down to 1 km horizontal grid-size) data assimilation with insertion of the extensive experiment measurements, especially the NEXRAD radar and satellite data.
UR: http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/model/crystal
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 3314 Convective processes
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting