High altitude cirrus clouds are composed mainly of ice crystals with a variety of sizes and shapes. They have a large influence on Earth’s energy balance and global climate. Recent studies indicate that the formation, dissipation, life time, optical, and micro-physical properties are influenced by the dynamical conditions of the surrounding atmosphere like background aerosol, turbulence, etc. In this work, an attempt has been made to quantify some of these characteristics by using lidar and mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar. Mie lidar and 53 MHz MST radar measurements made over 41 nights during the period 2009 to 2010 from the tropical station, Gadanki, India (13.5°N, 79.2°E). The optical and microphysical properties along with the structure and dynamics of the cirrus are presented as observed under different atmospheric conditions. The study reveals the manifestation of different forms of cirrus with a preferred altitude of formation in the 13 to 14 km altitude. There are considerable differences in the properties obtained among 2009 and 2010 showing significant anomalous behavior in 2010. The clouds observed during 2010 show relatively high asymmetry and large multiple scattering effects. The anomalies found during 2010 may be attributed to the turbulence noticed in the surrounding atmosphere. The results show a clear correlation between the crystal morphology in the clouds and the dynamical conditions of the prevailing atmosphere during the observational period.
Cirrus cloud measurements over the tropics are receiving much attention recently due to their role in the Earth's radiation budget. The interaction of water vapor and aerosols plays a major role in phase formation of cirrus clouds. Many factors control the ice supersaturation and microphysical properties in cirrus clouds and, as such, investigations on these properties of cirrus clouds are critical for proper understanding and simulating the climate. In this paper we report on the evolution, microphysical, and optical properties of cirrus clouds using the Mie LIDAR operation at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki, India (13.5°N, 79.2°E), an inland tropical station. The occurrence statistics, height, optical depth, depolarization ratio of the cirrus clouds, and their relationship with ice nuclei concentration were investigated over 29 days of observation during the year 2002. Cirrus clouds with a base altitude as low as 8.4 km are observed during the month of January and clouds with a maximum top height of 17.1 km are observed during the month of May. The cirrus has a mean thickness of 2 km during the period of study. The LIDAR ratio varies from 30 to 36 sr during the summer days of observation and 25 to 31 sr during the winter days of observation. Depolarization values range from 0.1 to 0.58 during the period of observation. The ice nuclei concentration has been calculated using the De Motts equation. It is observed that during the monsoon months of June, July, and August, there appears to be an increase in the ice nuclei number concentration. From the depolarization data an attempt is made to derive the ice crystal orientation and their structure of the cirrus. Crystal structures such as thin plates, thick plates, regular hexagons, and hexagonal columns are observed in the study. From the observed crystal structure and ice nuclei concentration, the possible nucleation mechanism is suggested.
The optical properties of the cirrus clouds over a tropical inland station Gadanki, Tirupati were studied using a dual polarization lidar. The extinction coefficient, backscatter coefficient, optical depth and linear depolarization of the cirrus clouds are derived using the range dependent lidar ratio. This work reports the results obtained during the period of December 2006 to July 2007 which covers the three prominent seasons of the year in the Indian subcontinent. A variety of ice crystals like hexagonal thin plate, thick plate, columns, dendrites and aggregates were observed within the cloud. The geometrical and optical thicknesses of the clouds show strong seasonal variations. The occurrence frequency of thin cirrus clouds was found to be relatively high as compared to sub-visible and dense clouds. In almost all the cases, the cloud contains smaller ice crystals in the top part, larger crystals in the middle portion and mixed phase in the bottom portion. Compared to the winter and summer seasons the horizontally oriented ice crystals were observed more in monsoon period. The lidar ratio and linear depolarization ratio of the cirrus clouds were in the range of 3-40 sr and 0.1-1.5 respectively. The maximum linear depolarization ratio was observed for the clouds containing randomly oriented ice crystal with temperature below -80°C. The lidar ratio was found to be maximum for the thin plate crystals and minimum for thick clouds with horizontally oriented ice crystals. The extinction and backscattering coefficients of the clouds were in the range of 0.3x10-4 to 6 x10-4 m-1 and 0.12x10-4 to 3x10-4 m-1 sr-1 respectively during the observation period.
Laser radar (lidar) provides an excellent tool for characterizing the physical properties of atmospheric aerosols which play a very important role in modifying the radiative budget of the Earth's atmosphere. One of the important issues in lidar research is to derive accurate backscattering or extinction coefficient profiles required for understanding the basic mechanisms in the formation of aerosols and identifying their sources and sinks. Most of the inversion methods used for deriving the aerosol coefficients assume a range independent value for the extinction-to- backscattering ratio [lidar ratio, (LR)]. However, it is known that in a realistic atmosphere the value of LR is range dependent and varies with the physical and chemical properties of the aerosols. In this paper, we use a variant of widely applied Klett's method to obtain the range dependent LR values and derive the aerosol extinction profiles with good accuracy. We present the lidar derived aerosol extinction profiles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere corresponding to different seasons of the year of two distinctly different stations in the Indian subcontinent namely Trivandrum (8.33° N, 77° E), Kerala, India, a coastal station and Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E), Tirupati, India an inland station. The range dependent LR is derived corresponding to different seasons of the year at the two stations. The lidar ratio, aerosol extinction coefficient (AEC), aerosol scattering ratio and aerosol optical depth show strong to medium seasonal variation at both the stations. The lidar ratio values at Trivandum vary in the range of 11-38 sr whereas the values range from 20-34 sr at Gadanki. AEC values at the Trivandum station vary from 7.9x10-6 to 6.9x10-5 m-1 and at Gadanki station the variation is from 1.27x10-5 to 6.9x10-5 m-1. It is proposed to use back-trajectory analysis to understand the sources of aerosol at the two stations.
Cirrus clouds have been identified as one of the most uncertain component in the atmospheric research. It is known that cirrus clouds modulate the earth's climate through direct and indirect modification of radiation. The role of cirrus clouds depends mainly
on their microphysical properties. To understand cirrus clouds better, we must observe and characterize their properties. In-situ observation of such clouds is a challenging experiment,
as the clouds are located at high altitudes. Active remote sensing method based on lidar can detect high and thin cirrus clouds with good spatial and temporal resolution. We present the result obtained on the microphysical properties of the cirrus clouds at two Tropical stations namely Gadhanki, Tirupati (13.50 N, 79.20 E), India and Trivandrum (13.50 N, 770 E) Kerala, India from the ground based pulsed Nd: YAG lidar systems installed at the stations. A variant
of the widely used Klett's lidar inversion method with range dependent scattering ratio is used for the present study for the retrieval of aerosol extinction and microphysical parameters of cirrus cloud.
The monsoon water cycle is the lifeline to over 60% of the world's population. The study on the behavioral change of Indian monsoon due to aerosol loading will help for the better understanding of Indian Monsoon. Aerosol system influences the atmosphere in two ways; it affects directly the radiation budget and indirectly provides condensation nuclei required for the clouds. The precipitation of the clouds in the monsoon season depends on the microphysical properties of the clouds. The effect of aerosol on cirrus clouds is being looked into through this work as an effort to study the role of aerosol on Indian Monsoon. The microphysical properties of high altitude clouds were obtained from the ground based lidar experiments at a low latitude station in the Indian subcontinent. Measurements during the Indian monsoon period from the inland station National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) Gadanki (13.5_ N, 79.2_ E), Tirupati, India were used for the investigation. The depolarization characteristics of the cirrus clouds were measured and the correlation between the depolarization and the precipitation characteristics were studied. The results obtained over a period of one year from January 1998 to December 1998 were presented.
Lidar has proven to be an effective instrument for obtaining high resolution profiles of atmospheric
aerosols. Deriving the optical properties of aerosols from the experimentally obtained lidar data is one of the most
interesting and challenging task for the atmospheric scientists. A few methods had been developed so far, to obtain the
quantitative profiles of extinction and backscattering coefficient of aerosols from the pulsed backscattering lidar
measurements. Most of the existing inversion methods assume a range independent value for the scattering ratio for
inverting the lidar signal even though it is known that the scattering ratio depends on the nature of aerosols and as such
range dependent. We used a modified Klett's method for the inversion of lidar signal that uses range dependent
scattering ratio (s) for the characterization of atmospheric aerosols. This method provides the constants k and s for all the altitude regions of the atmosphere and leads to derive the aerosol extinction profile for the lidar data. In this paper we
made a study on the errors involved in the extinction profiles derived using the range dependent scattering ratio and
discuss the approach in this regard to obtain the accurate extinction profiles.
This work reports the development and preliminary results of the Vibrational Raman lidar at a coastal station,
Trivandrum (8°33'N, 77°E). A Raman lidar technique for measuring atmospheric temperature and water vapor using
vibrational Raman spectra of N2 and H2O are discussed in detail. Interference filters at 607 and 660nm of 1nm band-
width are used in the Raman lidar channel. Nighttime temperature and water vapor profiles are obtained from 1-5km in
the lower atmosphere. Lidar water vapor profiles are in good agreement with the Regional Model data. The variation in
the temperature profiles may be due to the indirect aerosol effect in the lower atmosphere.
The design and development of the new Raman lidar of the Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space
Centre is presented here. This station is located at 8 degrees 33 minutes N, 77 degrees E in India. This lidar can monitor atmospheric temperature
(using Pure Rotational Raman Spectrum), aerosol extinction coefficient, water vapor profile and clouds. Advantages of
Pure Rotational Raman method over Vibrational Raman method are presented with the result obtained using Vibrational
Raman lidar. Optical layout of the lidar system, PRRS method and aerosol extinction measurements are described
briefly.
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