HR: 11:45h
AN: A42A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: On the use of ICE/SAT Lidar Space-Born Observations to Evaluate the Ability of MM5 Meso-Scale Model to Reproduce High Altitude Clouds Over Europe in Fall.
AU: * Chepfer, H
EM: chepfer@lmd.polytechnique.fr
AF: LMD/IPSL, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
AU: Chiriaco, M
EM: chiriaco@lmd.polytechnique.fr
AF: LMD/IPSL, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
AU: Vautard, R
EM: vautard@lmd.polytechnique.fr
AF: LMD/IPSL, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
AU: Spinhirne, J
EM: jspin@virl.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/GODDARD, Greenbelt, United States
AU: Minnis, P
EM: p.minnis@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/LaRC, MS420, Hampton, United States
AB: The description of ice clouds in meso-scale models has progressed significantly those last years in including improved microphysical schemes based on recent physical parametrizations deduced from observations. Recently, the first lidar in space has collected a valuable dataset that allows reaching an important step in our knowledge of occurrence and macrophysical properties of thin upper troposphere ice clouds. This study aims at evaluating MM5 capability to reproduce high altitude thin ice clouds using the Ice/SAT October-November 2003 dataset. MM5 is forced at large scale with NCEP thermodynamical profiles and ran hourly over the European continent with 0.5° spatial resolution. Space-borne lidar profiles are simulated from model outputs and compared to the observed ones at the same location and time. One month of simulations / observations comparisons show that the model reproduces correctly the clouds structures in average, but misses a significant quantity of high altitude thin clouds. When high clouds appear in the model, their ice water content seems to be overestimated. A complete analyze of this simulated / observed dataset will be presented.
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly