The Representativeness of ARM Point Measurements to Regional Cloud Property Statistics as Revealed by Cloudsat and CALIPSO
| Gerald Mace | University of Utah |
| Sally Benson | University of Utah |
Category: Cloud Properties
One of the central uncertainties that have hindered the use of ARM data by many global modeling groups is the degree to which ARM data collected at a point is representative of regional meteorological processes and statistics. For instance, can cloud occurrence and radiative forcing information derived by averaging ARM data over some time period be used to test cloud occurrence parameterizations in models? Data from Cloudsat and CALIPSO sample the region around the ARM sites over time. Therefore, we can characterize the degree to which ARM data represent regional cloud statistics by analyzing similar statistics derived from the space-based remote sensors. There are limitations, however, to what Cloudsat and CALIPSO data can accomplish in this respect. Because these satellites are in sun synchronous orbits (0130 and 1330 local equator crossing times), they do not sample the diurnal cycle. It seems that the ARM remote sensing data and Cloudsat/CALIPSO data are actually complimentary in that ARM senses the diurnal cycle at a point, while the satellite sensors sample regional statistics at a particular time in the diurnal cycle. We will examine regional cloud property statistics derived from merged Cloudsat and CALIPSO data and compare the statistics to time-averaged representations of cloud occurrence statistics from ARM. We plan to explore this issue in detail quantifying the correlation between ARM statistics averaged over various times with Cloudsat/CALIPSO averaged over various spatial scales.
This poster will be displayed at ARM Science Team Meeting.
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