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Airborne Passive Remote Sensing of Optical Thickness and Particle Effective Radius of Cirrus and Deep Convective Clouds

Within this Ph.D. thesis, the optical thickness and particle effective radius of cirrus and deep convective clouds (DCCs) are retrieved using passive remote sensing techniques. For this purpose, airborne and satellite measurements of spectral solar radiation combined with extensive radiative transfer simulations have been conducted. Data analyzed in this study were collected during the ML-CIRRUS and the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaigns, which aimed to study natural and contrail cirrus over Europe and DCCs over the Amazon rainforest using the German High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO), respectively. During the campaigns, HALO was equipped with a comprehensive set of remote sensing and in situ instruments. In particular flights, closely collocated measurements with the overpasses of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard of the Aqua satellite were carried out. A cirrus located above liquid water clouds and a DCC topped by an anvil cirrus are investigated.

In general, the research framework can be divided into four parts. In the first part, the spectral upward radiances measured by the Spectral Modular Airborne Radiation Measurement System (SMART)-Albedometer aboard of HALO are compared with those measured by the MODIS. In the second part, a radiance ratio retrieval assuming a vertically homogeneous cloud is applied to obtain the cloud optical thickness and particle effective radius based on the measurements of SMART-Albedometer and MODIS. Multiple near-infrared wavelengths with different absorption characteristics are utilized in the retrieval in order to study the vertical structure of cloud particle sizes. In the third part, the retrieved cloud properties are compared with those derived from the MODIS cloud products. For the cirrus case, the retrieved values of particle effective radius are further compared to in situ data measured by the Cloud Combination Probe (CCP). To allow this comparison, a vertical weighting method is applied. Although the comparison results in a good agreement, retrievals using this conventional technique only provide information on cloud particle sizes from the upper layers, even if spectral measurements have been employed. The retrieved particle effective radius represents a vertically weighted value, where the upper cloud layers are weighted at most.

In the fourth part, an extended technique based on Bayesian optimal estimation has been developed to obtain the full vertical profile of particle effective radius. For this purpose, a parameterization assuming the shape of the vertical profile with respect to a vertical coordinate within the cloud is applied. The information content of SMART-Albedometer measurements is analyzed to identify wavelengths that bring the most information pertaining to each retrieval parameter. The new retrieval technique is applied to the cirrus case to infer the profile of particle effective radius as a function of optical thickness. The comparison between the retrieved and the in situ profiles shows a good agreement with a deviation of about 5 % at the cloud top and increases to values of up to 15 % at the cloud base. The new retrieval technique has shown excellent skill in improving the study of the vertical profile of cloud microphysical properties, which can be applied in the future generation of airborne and satellite retrievals based on the measurements of passive remote sensing.:1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Measurements
4. Comparison of upward radiance
5. Retrieval of cloud optical thickness and particle effective radius
6. Comparison of cloud optical thickness and particle effective radius
7. Retrieval of the vertical profile of particle effective radius
8. Summary and conclusion

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:32870
Date30 January 2019
CreatorsKrisna, Trismono Candra
ContributorsUniversität Leipzig
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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