HR: 12:05h
AN: A22B-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Determining the Best-Estimate of Cloud Drop Size From a Variety of Remote Sensing Instruments
AU: * Feingold, G
EM: graham.feingold@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, DSRC 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AU: Furrer, R
EM: furrer@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 United States
AU: Pilewskie, P
EM: Peter.Pilewskie@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado, Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Duane Physics, Rm D-317 Campus Box 311, Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AU: Remer, L A
EM: lorraine.a.remer@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center, code 613.2 Bldg 33 Room A313, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Min, Q
EM: min@asrc.cestm.albany.edu
AF: ASRC, State University of New York, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY 1220 United States
AU: Jonsson, H
EM: hjonsson@nps.edu
AF: CIRPAS, Naval Postgraduate School, 3240 Imjin Rd., Monterey, CA 93933 United States
AB: We present a methodology for merging satellite and surface-based remote measurements of cloud drop size from a number of different surface and space-borne, passive and active sensors, each with their respective sample volumes, temporal resolutions, and sensitivities to various parts of the cloud. The approach is based on a generalized least squares approach, i.e., minimization of a cost function consisting of the weighted squared errors. Data for this exercise were acquired in May 2003 at the Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma, where a suite of both in-situ and remote sensing instruments were available to measure aerosol and cloud parameters. The least squares methodology is applied to a single event and a best-estimate drop-size profile is determined. Sensitivity of this retrieval to some of the applied weighting functions is explored. We then estimate the magnitude of aerosol-cloud interaction based on different aerosol measurements and the various drop size retrievals. The response of drop effective radius r_e to changes in aerosol on three days shows that in spite of the generally good agreement in derived r_e, the magnitude of the response of r_e to changes in aerosol is quite sensitive to the method of retrieving r_e, and to the aerosol proxy for cloud condensation nuclei.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005