Over the past several years, this team has fused in situ microphysical data collected from decades of ice cloud field campaigns with the latest theoretical ice cloud scattering calculations. Our original motivation was to mitigate some of the issues known to exist in the original MODIS scattering models used for ice cloud retrievals from Collection 1 through Collection 4 processing. The new MODIS models have been implemented in Collection 5 operational processing and the methodology for this work has been published. Due to the interest in the MODIS models given by the larger scientific community, we developed similar ones for a suite of satellite and aircraft instruments, each taking into account the individual instrument spectral response functions. These models are gaining acceptance for use by both national and international remote sensing teams in their analyses of active (e.g., depolarization lidar) and passive (e.g., MODIS, AIRS, AVHRR, AATSR, MISR, SEVIRI, MAS) remote sensing data. Since models are available for a suite of instruments, studies are being planned to determine the interconsistency of the cloud parameters obtained from these various instruments. For example, analysis of a given cirrus scene can include cloud parameters from MODIS, AIRS, and CALIPSO as well as aircraft or ground-based instrumentation. We note that historically, each team treats the radiative transfer modeling component of ice clouds differently - but by building bulk scattering models consistently for each instrument, it will be much more straightforward to intercompare and validate results. Additionally, we have been asked to develop band models for use in general circulation models and other radiative transfer packages in which computational speed is a factor. Now that the first comprehensive set of models is available, our goals for future work are to:
- implement new microphysical particle size distributions collected during recent field campaigns. These new PSDs incorporate some new instrumentation such as the small particle probes.
- develop band models and parameterizations appropriate for numerical weather forecasting and general circulation models.
- update the suite of ice cloud bulk scattering models as knowledge is gained from their application in various research efforts (we expect that deficiencies will be found but have no understanding yet as to their severity), and
- perform extended scattering calculations as necessary to include new particle habits or extend the spectral coverage currently available.
