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At least 289 records · Page 16

Low-Level Cloud Variability over the Equatorial Cold Tongue in Observations and Models

A fourth paper now in press is, Low-level cloud variability over the equatorial cold tongue in observations and models, by D. K. Mansbach and J. R. Norris (2007, J. Climate). This study examined cloud and meteorological observations from satellite, surface, and reanalysis datasets and fount that monthly anomalies in low-level cloud amount and near-surface temperature advection are strongly negatively correlated on the southern side of the equatorial Pacific cold tongue. This inverse correlation occurs independently of relationships between cloud amount and sea surface temperature (SST) or lower tropospheric static stability (LTS) and the combination of advection plus SST or LTS explains significantly more interannual cloud variability in a multilinear regression than does SST or LTS alone. Warm anomalous advection occurs when the equatorial cold tongue is well defined and the southeastern Pacific trade winds bring relatively warm air over colder water. Ship meteorological reports and soundings show that the atmospheric surface layer becomes stratified under these conditions, thus inhibiting the upward mixing of moisture needed to sustain cloudiness against subsidence and entrainment drying. Cold anomalous advection primarily occurs when the equatorial cold tongue is weak or absent and the air-sea temperature difference is substantially negative. These conditions favor a more convective atmospheric boundary layer, greater cloud amount, and less frequent occurrence of clear sky. Examination of output from global climate models developed by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) indicates that both models generally fail to simulate the cloud-advection relationships observed on the northern and southern sides of the equatorial cold tongue. Although the GFDL atmosphere model does reproduce the expected signs of cloud-advection correlations when forced with prescribed historical SST variations, it does not consistently do so when coupled to an ocean model. The NCAR model has difficulty reproducing the observed correlations in both atmosphere-only and coupled versions. This suggests that boundary layer cloud parameterizations could be improved through better representation of the effects of advection over varying SST.

Mansbach, David K.↗

Evaluation and Assimilation of Cloud Cleared Radiances for AIRS in GEOS-5

The use of clear (cloud-free) channels for AIRS in GEOS-5 had shown positive impact on forecast skills in both hemispheres. However, improvements in forecast skills due to the assimilation of AIRS data are less impressive since the number of assimilated channels from AIRS is much larger than that from other Infrared sounders such as HIRS-3 onboard NOAA 15-17 satellites. This limitation of AIRS radiance data to improve the forecast skill is mainly due to the fact that channels capable of peaking below clouds are not used in the assimilation and yet those have highest vertical resolving capability of AIRS instrument are concentrated in the lower troposphere. On average, the percentage of AIRS footprints completely clear for all channels is less than 10%. The percentage of assimilated AIRS channel radiances however ranges from 100% for channels peaking in the upper stratosphere, above the cloud, to no more that 5% in the lower atmosphere due to cloud contamination. Our current ability to model and predict clouds accurately in global model, and to fully characterize and parameterize optical properties of cloud particles in radiative transfer model are the two major obstacles prohibiting us to use cloudy radiance directly in the assimilation. To further improve forecast skill using AIRS data, we ought to use the channels peaking below the clouds in the troposphere, which can be accomplished by assimilating cloud-cleared radiance. The cloud-cleared radiance data for AIRS used in this study were obtained from optimal cloud clearing procedures developed by researchers at CIMSS of University of Wisconsin at Madison to retrieve clear column radiances for all AIRS channels by collocating multi-band MODIS IR clear radiance observations with the AIRS cloudy radiances on a single footprint basis. Two adjacent AIRS cloudy footprints are used to retrieve one AIRS cloud-cleared radiance spectrum and no background information (first guess) is needed. To assimilate the cloud-cleared radiance data, the errors of the cloud-cleared radiances need to be addressed. The details of convolving AIRS radiances with MODIS spectral response function and comparison with MODIS-measured cloud-free radiance will be presented. The range of errors of cloud-cleared radiances for AIRS using collocated MODIS clear and near-by AIRS clear data will be shown. The NASA. global data assimilation model, GEOS-5, is used to evaluate and assimilate the cloud-cleared radiance for AIRS. The residues between the cloud-cleared brightness temperature and the simulated brightness temperature from background (i.e., OMFs) will be investigated. The quality control procedures will be documented based on error estimation and the OMFs. Finally, the impacts between assimilation of clear channel radiances and cloud-cleared radiances will be addressed.

Liu, Hui-chun↗

A New Eddy Dissipation Rate Formulation for the Terminal Area PBL Prediction System(TAPPS)

The TAPPS employs the MASS model to produce mesoscale atmospheric simulations in support of the Wake Vortex project at Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport (DFW). A post-processing scheme uses the simulated three-dimensional atmospheric characteristics in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) to calculate the turbulence quantities most important to the dissipation of vortices: turbulent kinetic energy and eddy dissipation rate. TAPPS will ultimately be employed to enhance terminal area productivity by providing weather forecasts for the Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS). The post-processing scheme utilizes experimental data and similarity theory to determine the turbulence quantities from the simulated horizontal wind field and stability characteristics of the atmosphere. Characteristic PBL quantities important to these calculations are determined based on formulations from the Blackadar PBL parameterization, which is regularly employed in the MASS model to account for PBL processes in mesoscale simulations. The TAPPS forecasts are verified against high-resolution observations of the horizontal winds at DFW. Statistical assessments of the error in the wind forecasts suggest that TAPPS captures the essential features of the horizontal winds with considerable skill. Additionally, the turbulence quantities produced by the post-processor are shown to compare favorably with corresponding tower observations.

Charney, Joseph J.↗

Development of an engineering model atmosphere for Mars

An engineering model atmosphere for Mars is being developed with many of the same features and capabilities for the highly successful Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM) program for Earth's atmosphere. As an initial approach, the model is being built around the Martian atmosphere model computer subroutine (ATMOS) of Culp and Stewart (1984). In a longer-term program of research, additional refinements and modifications will be included. ATMOS includes parameterizations to stimulate the effects of solar activity, seasonal variation, diurnal variation magnitude, dust storm effects, and effects due to the orbital position of Mars. One of the current shortcomings of ATMOS is the neglect of surface variation effects. The longer-term period of research and model building is to address some of these problem areas and provide further improvements in the model (including improved representation of near-surface variations, improved latitude-longitude gradient representation, effects of the large annual variation in surface pressure because of differential condensation/sublimation of the CO2 atmosphere in the polar caps, and effects of Martian atmospheric wave perturbations on the magnitude of the expected density perturbation.

Justus, C. G.↗

Performance of Goddard Earth Observing System GCM Column Radiation Models under Heterogeneous Cloud Conditions

We test the performance of the shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) Column Radiation Models (CORAMs) of Chou and collaborators with heterogeneous cloud fields from a global single-day dataset produced by NCAR's Community Atmospheric Model with a 2-D CRM installed in each gridbox. The original SW version of the CORAM performs quite well compared to reference Independent Column Approximation (ICA) calculations for boundary fluxes, largely due to the success of a combined overlap and cloud scaling parameterization scheme. The absolute magnitude of errors relative to ICA are even smaller for the LW CORAM which applies similar overlap. The vertical distribution of heating and cooling within the atmosphere is also simulated quite well with daily-averaged zonal errors always below 0.3 K/d for SW heating rates and 0.6 K/d for LW cooling rates. The SW CORAM's performance improves by introducing a scheme that accounts for cloud inhomogeneity. These results suggest that previous studies demonstrating the inaccuracy of plane-parallel models may have unfairly focused on worst scenario cases, and that current radiative transfer algorithms of General Circulation Models (GCMs) may be more capable than previously thought in estimating realistic spatial and temporal averages of radiative fluxes, as long as they are provided with correct mean cloud profiles. However, even if the errors of the particular CORAMs are small, they seem to be systematic, and the impact of the biases can be fully assessed only with GCM climate simulations.

Oreopoulos, L.↗

Non-Migrating Diurnal Tides Generated with Planetary Waves in the Mesosphere

We report here the results from a modeling study with our Numerical Spectral Model (NSM) that extends from the ground into thermosphere. The NSM incorporates Hines Doppler Spread Parameterization for small-scale gravity waves (GWs) and describes the major dynamical features of the atmosphere, including the wave driven equatorial oscillations (QBO and SAO), and the seasonal variations of tides and planetary waves. Accounting solely for the solar migrating tidal excitation sources, the NSM generates through dynamical interactions also non-migrating tides in the mesosphere that have amplitudes comparable to those observed. The model produces the diurnal (and semidiurnal) oscillations of the zonal mean (m = 0), and eastward and westward propagating tides for zonal wave numbers m = 1 to 4. To identify the mechanism of excitation for these tides, a numerical experiment is performed. The NSM is run without the heat source for the zonal-mean circulation and temperature variation, and the amplitudes of the resulting nonmigrating tides are then negligibly small. This leads to the conclusion that the planetary waves, which normally are excited in the NSM by instabilities but are suppressed in this case, generate the nonmigrating tides through nonlinear interactions with the migrating tides.

Mayr, H. G.↗

Wind shear and turbulence around airports

A two part study was conducted to determine the feasibility of predicting the conditions under which wind/turbulence environments hazardous to aviation operations exist. The computer model used to solve the velocity temperature, and turbulence distributions in the atmospheric boundary layer is described, and the results of a parameteric analysis to determine the expected range of wind shear and turbulence to be encountered in the vicinity of airports are given. The second part describes the delineation of an ensemble of aircraft accidents in which low level wind shear and/or turbulence appeared to be causative factors. This set of accidents, encompassing a wide range of meteorological conditions, should prove useful in developing techniques for reconstructing hazardous wind environments for aircraft safety investigation purposes.

Lewellen, W. S.↗

A scheme for parameterizing cirrus cloud ice water content in general circulation models

Clouds strongly influence th earth's energy budget. They control th amount of solar radiative energy absorbed by the climate system, partitioning the energy between the atmosphere and the earth's surface. They also control the loss of energy to space by their effect on thermal emission. Cirrus and altostratus are the most frequent cloud types, having an annual average global coverage of 35 and 40 percent, respectively. Cirrus is composed almost entirely of ice crystals and the same is frequently true of the upper portions of altostratus since they are often formed by the thickening of cirrostratus and by the spreading of the middle or upper portions of thunderstorms. Thus, since ice clouds cover such a large portion of the earth's surface, they almost certainly have an important effect on climate. With this recognition, researchers developing climate models are seeking largely unavailable methods for specifying the conditions for ice cloud formation, and quantifying the spatial distribution of ice water content, IWC, a necessary step in deriving their radiative characteristics since radiative properties are apparently related to IWC. A method is developed for specifying IWC in climate models, based on theory and measurements in cirrus during FIRE and other experiments.

Heymsfield, Andrew J.↗

On the Response of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager to the Marine Environment: Implications for Atmospheric Parameter Retrievals

A reasonably rigorous basis for understanding and extracting the physical information content of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) satellite images of the marine environment is provided. To this end, a comprehensive algebraic parameterization is developed for the response of the SSM/I to a set of nine atmospheric and ocean surface parameters. The brightness temperature model includes a closed-form approximation to microwave radiative transfer in a non-scattering atmosphere and fitted models for surface emission and scattering based on geometric optics calculations for the roughened sea surface. The combined model is empirically tuned using suitable sets of SSM/I data and coincident surface observations. The brightness temperature model is then used to examine the sensitivity of the SSM/I to realistic variations in the scene being observed and to evaluate the theoretical maximum precision of global SSM/I retrievals of integrated water vapor, integrated cloud liquid water, and surface wind speed. A general minimum-variance method for optimally retrieving geophysical parameters from multichannel brightness temperature measurements is outlined, and several global statistical constraints of the type required by this method are computed. Finally, a unified set of efficient statistical and semi-physical algorithms is presented for obtaining fields of surface wind speed, integrated water vapor, cloud liquid water, and precipitation from SSM/I brightness temperature data. Features include: a semi-physical method for retrieving integrated cloud liquid water at 15 km resolution and with rms errors as small as approximately 0.02 kg/sq m; a 3-channel statistical algorithm for integrated water vapor which was constructed so as to have improved linear response to water vapor and reduced sensitivity to precipitation; and two complementary indices of precipitation activity (based on 37 GHz attenuation and 85 GHz scattering, respectively), each of which are relatively insensitive to variations in other environmental parameters.

Petty, Grant W.↗

One-dimensional hybrid satellite track model for the Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) satellite

A one-dimensional hybrid satellite track model has been developed to calculate the high-latitude thermospheric/ionospheric structure below the satellite altitude using Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) satellite measurements and theory. This model is based on Emery et al. (1985) satellite track code but also includes elements of Roble et al. (1987b) global mean thermosphere/ionosphere model. A number of parameterizations and data handling techniques are used to input satellite data from several DE 2 instruments into this model. Profiles of neutral atmospheric densities are determined from the Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter 1990 (MSIS-90) model and measured neutral temperatures. Measured electron precipitation spectra are used in an auroral model to calculate particle impact ionization rates below the satellite. These rates are combined with a solar ionization rate profile and used to solve the O(+) diffusion equation, with the measured electron density as an upper boundary condition. The calculated O(+) density distribution, as well as the ionization profiles, are then used in a photochemical equilibrium model to calculate the electron and molecular ion densities. The electron temperature is also calculated by solving the electron energy equation with an upper boundary condition determined by the DE 2 measurement. The model enables calculations of altitude profiles of conductivity and Joule heating rate along and below the satellite track. In a first application of the new model, a study is made of thermospheric and ionospheric structure below the DE 2 satellite for a single orbit which occurred on October 25, 1981. The field-aligned Poynting flux, which is independently obtained for this orbit, is compared with the model predictions of the height-integrated energy conversion rate. Good quantitative agreement between these two estimates has been reached. In addition, measurements taken at the incoherent scatter radar site at Chatanika (65.1 deg N, 147.4 deg W) during a DE 2 overflight are compared with the model calculations. A good agreement was found in lower thermospheric conductivities and Joule heating rate.

Deng, Wei↗

One-Dimensional Hybrid Satellite Track Model for the Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) Satellite

A one-dimensional hybrid satellite track model has been developed to calculate the high-latitude thermospheric/ionospheric structure below the satellite altitude using Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) satellite measurements and theory. This model is based on Emery et al. satellite track code but also includes elements of Roble et al. global mean thermosphere/ionosphere model. A number of parameterizations and data handling techniques are used to input satellite data from several DE 2 instruments into this model. Profiles of neutral atmospheric densities are determined from the MSIS-90 model and measured neutral temperatures. Measured electron precipitation spectra are used in an auroral model to calculate particle impact ionization rates below the satellite. These rates are combined with a solar ionization rate profile and used to solve the O(+) diffusion equation, with the measured electron density as an upper boundary condition. The calculated O(+) density distribution, as well as the ionization profiles, are then used in a photochemical equilibrium model to calculate the electron and molecular ion densities. The electron temperature is also calculated by solving the electron energy equation with an upper boundary condition determined by the DE 2 measurement. The model enables calculations of altitude profiles of conductivity and Joule beating rate along and below the satellite track. In a first application of the new model, a study is made of thermospheric and ionospheric structure below the DE 2 satellite for a single orbit which occurred on October 25, 1981. The field-aligned Poynting flux, which is independently obtained for this orbit, is compared with the model predictions of the height-integrated energy conversion rate. Good quantitative agreement between these two estimates has been reached. In addition, measurements taken at the incoherent scatter radar site at Chatanika (65.1 deg N, 147.4 deg W) during a DE 2 overflight are compared with the model calculations. A good agreement was found in lower thermospheric conductivities and Joule heating rate.

Deng, Wei↗

The radiative impact of cumulus cloudiness in a general circulation model

The effect of cumulus cloudiness on the radiational heating and, on other aspects of the climate were simulated by the GLAS Climate Model. An experiment in which the cumulus cloudiness is neglected completely for purposes of the solar and terrestrial radiation parameterizations was performed. The results are compared with those of a control run, in which 100% cumulus cloud cover is assumed. The net solar radiation input into the Earth atmosphere system is more realistic in the experiment, and the model's underprediction of the global mean outgoing thermal radiation at the top of the atmosphere is reduced. The results suggest that there is a positive feedback between cumulus convection and the radiation field. The upper troposphere is warmer in the experiment, the surface air temperature increases over land, and the thermal lows over the continents intensity.

Moeng, C. H.↗

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Atmosphere and Surface Properties

Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), and Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) are all hyper-spectral satellite sensors with thousands of spectral channels. Top of atmospheric radiance spectra measured by these sensors contain high information content on atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties. Exploring high information content contained in these high spectral resolution spectra is a challenging task due to computation e ort involved in modeling thousands of spectral channels. Usually, only very small fractions (4{10 percent) of the available channels are included in physical retrieval systems or numerical weather forecast (NWP) satellite data assimilations. We will describe a method of simultaneously retrieving atmospheric temperature, moisture, cloud, and surface properties using all available spectral channels without sacrificing computational speed. The essence of the method is to convert channel radiance spectra into super-channels by an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) transformation. Because the EOFs are orthogonal to each other, about 100 super-channels are adequate to capture the information content of the radiance spectra. A Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model (PCRTM) developed at NASA Langley Research Center is used to calculate both the super-channel magnitudes and derivatives with respect to atmospheric profiles and other properties. There is no need to perform EOF transformations to convert super channels back to spectral space at each iteration step for a one-dimensional variational retrieval or a NWP data assimilation system. The PCRTM forward model is also capable of calculating radiative contributions due to multiple-layer clouds. The multiple scattering effects of the clouds are efficiently parameterized. A physical retrieval algorithm then performs an inversion of atmospheric, cloud, and surface properties in super channel domain directly therefore both reducing the computational need and preserving the information content of the IASI measurements. The inversion algorithm is based on a non-linear Levenberg-Marquardt method with climatology covariance matrices and a priori information as constraints. One advantage of this approach is that it uses all information content from the hyper-spectral data so that the retrieval is less sensitive to instrument noise and eliminates the need for selecting a sub-set of the channels.

Liu, Xu↗

A Surface Radiation Balance Data Set from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation

A field campaign at Siple Dome in West Antarctica during the austral summer 2019-2020 offers an opportunity to evaluate climate model performance, particularly cloud microphysical simulation. Over Antarctic ice sheets and ice shelves, clouds are a major regulator of the surface energy balance, and in the warm season their presence occasionally induces surface melt that can gradually weaken an ice shelf structure. This dataset from Siple Dome, obtained using transportable and solar-poweredequipment, includes surface energy balance measurements, meteorology and cloud remote sensing. To demonstrate how these data can be used to evaluate model performance, comparisons are made with meteorological reanalysis known to give generally good performance over Antarctica (ERA5). Surface albedo measurements show expected variability with observed cloud amount, and can be used to evaluate a model's snowpack parameterization. One case study discussed involves a squall with northerly winds, during which ERA5 fails to produce cloud cover throughout one of the days. A second case study illustrates how shortwave spectroradiometer measurements that encompass the 1.6-micron atmospheric window reveal cloud phase transitions associated with cloud lifecycle. Here, continuously precipitating mixed-phase clouds become mainly liquid water clouds from local morning through the afternoon, not reproduced by ERA5. We challenge researchers to run their various regional or global models in a manner that has the large-scale meteorology follow the conditions of this field campaign, compare cloud and radiation simulations with this Siple Dome dataset, and potentially investigate why cloud microphysical simulations or other model components might produce discrepancies with these observations.

cloud remote sensing↗

Validation of Satellite Aerosol Retrievals from AERONET Ground-Based Measurements

Accurate and comprehensive assessment of the parameters that control key atmospheric and biospheric processes including assessment of anthropogenic effects on climate change is a fundamental measurement objective of NASA's EOS program (King and Greenstone, 1999). Satellite assessment programs and associated global climate models require validation and additional parameterization with frequent reliable ground-based observations. A critical and highly uncertain element of the measurement program is characterization of tropospheric aerosols requiring basic observations of aerosols optical and microphysical properties. Unfortunately as yet we do not know the aerosol burden man is contributing to the atmosphere and thus we will have no definitive measure of change for the future. This lack of aerosol assessment is the impetus for some of the EOS measurement activities (Kaufman et al., 1997; King et al., 1999) and the formation of the AERONET program (Holben et al., 1998). The goals of the AERONET program are to develop long term monitoring at globally distributed sites providing critical data for multiannual trend changes in aerosol loading and optical properties with the specific goal of providing a data base for validation of satellite derived aerosol optical properties. The AERONET program has evolved into an international federated network of approximately 100 ground-based remote sensing monitoring stations to characterize the optical and microphysical properties of aerosols.

Holben, Brent↗

Lightning Over Central Canada: Skill Assessment for Various Land-Atmosphere Model Configurations and Lightning Indices Over a Boreal Study Area

Current lightning predictions are uncertain because they rely on empirical diagnostic relationships and often use coarse-scale climate scenario simulations in which deep convection is parameterized. Previous studies demonstrated that simulations with convection permitting resolutions improve lightning predictions compared to coarser-grid simulations using convection parameterizations for different geographical locations but not over the boreal zone. In this study, lightning simulations with the NASA Unified-Weather Research and Forecasting (NU-WRF) model are evaluated over a domain including the Great Slave Lake in Canada, for six lightning seasons. The simulations are performed at convection parameterized (9 km) and convection-permitting (3 km) resolution using the Goddard 4ICE and the Thompson microphysics schemes. Four lightning indices are evaluated against observations from the Canadian Lightning Detection Network, in terms of spatiotemporal frequency distribution, spatial pattern, daily climatology, and an event-based overall skill assessment. The Thompson scheme is, regardless of the spatial resolution, superior to the Goddard 4ICE scheme in predicting daily climatology but worse in predicting the spatial patterns of lightning occurrence. Results indicate that lightning estimation benefits from modeling at convection-permitting resolution, in particular for the ice based lightning indices. In contrast, the product of convective available potential energy and precipitation rate proved to be the most robust index that was largely invariant to varying spatial resolution. Finally, this study reveals issues of the models to reproduce the observed spatial pattern of lightning well, which might be related to an insufficient representation of land surface heterogeneity, including peatlands, in the study area.

Jonas Mortelmans↗

Non-Migrating Tides, with Zonally Symmetric Component, Generated in the Mesosphere

For comparison with measurements from the TIMED satellite and coordinated ground based observations, we discuss results from our Numerical Spectral Model (NSM) that incorporates the Doppler Spread Parameterization (Hines, 1997) for small-scale gravity waves (GWs). The NSM extends from the ground into the thermosphere and describes the major dynamical features of the atmosphere including the wave driven equatorial oscillations (QBO and SAO), and the seasonal variations of tides and planetary waves. With emphasis on the non-migrating tides, having periods of 24 and 12 hours, we discuss our modeling results that account for the classical migrating solar excitation sources only. As reported earlier, the NSM reproduces the observed seasonal variations and in particular the large equinoctial maxima in the amplitude of the migrating diurnal tide at altitudes around 90 km. Filtering of the tide by the zonal circulation and GW momentum deposition was identified as the cause. The GWs were also shown to produce a strong non-linear interaction between the diurnal and semi-diurnal tides. Confined largely to the mesosphere, the NSM produces through dynamical interactions a relatively large contribution of non-migrating tides. A striking feature is seen in the diurnal and semi-diurnal oscillations of the zonal mean (m = 0). Eastward propagating tides are also generated for zonal wave numbers m = 1 to 4. When the NSM is run without GWs, the amplitudes for the non-migrating tides, including m = 0, are generally small. Planetary wave interaction and non-linear coupling that involves the filtering of GWs and related height integration of dynamical features are discussed as possible mechanisms for generating these non-migrating tides in the NSM. As is the case for the solar migrating tides, the non-migrating tides reveal persistent seasonal variations. Under the influence of the QBO and SAO, interannual variations are produced.

Mayr, H. G.↗

Raman lidar and sun photometer measurements of aerosols and water vapor during the ARM RCS experiment

The first Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Remote Cloud Study (RCS) Intensive Operations Period (IOP) was held during April 1994 at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site near Lamont, Oklahoma. This experiment was conducted to evaluate and calibrate state-of-the-art, ground based remote sensing instruments and to use the data acquired by these instruments to validate retrieval algorithms developed under the ARM program. These activities are part of an overall plan to assess general circulation model (GCM) parameterization research. Since radiation processes are one of the key areas included in this parameterization research, measurements of water vapor and aerosols are required because of the important roles these atmospheric constituents play in radiative transfer. Two instruments were deployed during this IOP to measure water vapor and aerosols and study their relationship. The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) acquired water vapor and aerosol profile data during 15 nights of operations. The lidar acquired vertical profiles as well as nearly horizontal profiles directed near an instrumented 60 meter tower. Aerosol optical thickness, phase function, size distribution, and integrated water vapor were derived from measurements with a multiband automatic sun and sky scanning radiometer deployed at this site.

Ferrare, R. A.↗