Identification

Title

Normalized particle size distribution for remote sensing application

Abstract

The ice particle size distribution (PSD) is fundamental to the quantitative description of a cloud. It is also crucial in the development of remote sensing retrieval techniques using radar and/or lidar measurements. The PSD allows one to link characteristics of individual particles (area, mass, and scattering properties) to characteristics of an ensemble of particles in a sampling volume (e.g., visible extinction (σ), ice water content (IWC), and radar reflectivity (Z)). The aim of this study is to describe a normalization technique to represent the PSD. We update an earlier study by including recent in situ measurements covering a large variety of ice clouds spanning temperatures ranging between -80°C and 0°C. This new data set also includes direct measurements of IWC. We demonstrate that it is possible to scale the PSD in size space by the volume-weighted diameter Dm and in the concentration space by the intercept parameter inline image and obtain the intrinsic shape of the PSD. Therefore, by combining inline image, Dm, and a modified gamma function representing the normalized PSD shape, we are able to approximate key cloud variables (such as IWC) as well as cloud properties which can be remotely observed (such as Z) with an absolute mean relative error smaller than 20%. The underlying idea is to be able to retrieve the PSD using two independent measurements. We also propose parameterizations for ice cloud key parameters derived from the normalized PSD. We also investigate the effects of uncertainty present in the ice crystal mass-size relationships on the parameterizations and the normalized PSD approach.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ws8v5r

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2014-04-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact