A Classification of Ice Crystal Habits Using Combined Lidar and Scanning Polarimeter Observations during the SEAC4RS Campaign
Abstract
Using collocated NASA Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) and Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) data from the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign, a new observational-based method was developed which uses aK-means clustering technique to classify ice crystal habit types into seven categories: column, plates, rosettes, spheroids, and three different type of irregulars. Intercompared with the collocated SPEC, Inc., Cloud Particle Imager (CPI) data, the frequency of the detected ice crystal habits from the proposed method presented in the study agrees within 5% with the CPI-reported values for columns, irregulars, rosettes, and spheroids, with more disagreement for plates. This study suggests that a detailed ice crystal habit retrieval could be applied to combined space-based lidar and polarimeter observations such asCALIPSOand POLDER in addition to future missions such as the Aerosols, Clouds, Convection, and Precipitation (A-CCP).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1175/jtech-d-20-0037.1
Entities
People
- Bastiaan Van Diedenhoven
- Jianglong Zhang
- John E. Yorks
- Matthew Mcgill
- Natalie Midzak
- Sarah Woods
Organizations
- Columbia University
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- United States Naval Research Laboratory
- University of North Dakota