The main objective of this work is to describe a research project on fog and visibility, and to summarize the results. The
Fog Remote Sensing and Modeling (FRAM) project was designed to focus on 1) development of microphysical
parameterizations for model applications, 2) development of remote sensing methods for fog nowcasting/forecasting, 3)
understanding of issues related to instrument capabilities and improvement of the analysis, and 4) integration of model
data with observations. The FRAM was conducted over three regions of Canada and US. These locations were: 1)
Center for Atmospheric Research Experiments (CARE), Egbert, Ontario 2005-2006, 2) Lunenburg, Nova Scotia June of
2006 and 2007, and 3) U.S. Department Of Energy (DOE) ARM Climate Research Facility at Barrow, Alaska, US
during the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) field program April of 2008; FRAM C, FRAM-L, and
ISDAC-FRAM-B, respectively. FRAM-C was undertaken in a continental fog environment while FRAM-L was in a
marine environment. The FRAM-B was undertaken to study ice fog conditions. During the project, numerous in-situ
measurements were obtained, including droplet and aerosol spectra, precipitation, and visibility. Analysis of satellite
microphysical retrievals and visibility parameterizations suggested that improved scientific understanding of fog
formation can lead to better forecasting/nowcasting skills benefiting both aviation and public forecasting applications.
Observations of low level stratiform clouds made over the Bay of Fundy from 15 August to 26 September 1995, as part of the Radiation, Aerosol, and Cloud Experiment (RACE) are used in this study. Aircraft, LAND Resources SATellite System (LANDSAT), and the Center for Atmospheric Research Experiment (CARE) lidar observations were used to obtain effective radius (rett), droplet number concentration (Nd). and cloud optical thickness (t). Radiation observations with a 28.5 m resolution at six solar reflectance channels from 0.45 μm up to 2.35 μm of the Thematic Mapper (TM) on LANDSAT were used. The 10.4-12.5 μm infrared channel has a field of view of 114 m. The visible extinction coefficient ( crex1) obtained from an aircraft mounted extinction meter was related to both liquid water content (L WC) and Nd. Optical thickness (t) were obtained from LANDSAT observations. Then, Nd, LWC, and reffalong lines of longitude are averaged at about 10 km intervals. The results showed that the relationships obtained between reff and t for stratiform clouds can be used to estimate reff values from satellite derived 't. Key words: Optical thickness, effective radius, extinction coefficient, aircraft and LANDSAT observations
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